Providencia ssp in Nosocomial Urinary Infections

Authors: Efsun AKBAŞ, Orhan Cem AKTEPE, Belkıs LEVENT, İbrahim DALKILINÇ, Engin GÜVENER

Abstract: This study was carried out in the Ankara Rehabilitation Centre over an eight month period. A total of 428 urine samples was collected from inpatients with long-term catheterization for diagnosis of bacteriuria. Urinary tract infection was detected in three hundreds and thirty-one samples. Escherichia coli was found to be the highest causative agent. Moreover in forty of these samples Providencia spp were determined as the fifth highest causative agent. This Providencia spp finding is important as it is the highest recorded in Turkey. Although six out of 40 isolates were during preservation, the remaining thirty-four isolates were further investigated to reveal their antibiogram patterns and typing. Thirty-two of them were found to be P. stuartii and two of them P. rettgeri. Tests for antibiotic sensitivities were performed by conventional disk diffusion method according to the recommendations of NCCLS (National Committee of Clinical Laboratory Standards). A comparison of antibiogram patterns of Pro-videncia isolates revealed two identical clusters; six P. stuartii and one P. rettgeri were seen in the first cluster and seven P. stuartii isolates were observed in the second. These findings could indicate that either a cross infection had occurred among different patients or genomic transfer of resistance genes had taken place among different strains in hospital environment.

Keywords: Providencia spp, Nosocomial uri-nary tract infection, Long-term urinary catheterization, Catheter-associated bacteriuria

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