Abstract

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Health care acquired infections (HCAIs) are those infections that occur within 48 hours of hospital admission, 3 days of discharge or 30 days of an operation. These infections have strong effect on patients because of worsening underlying medical condition and increased mortality and morbidity. They are mostly caused by microorganisms already present in or on the patient's own body. Such organisms only cause problems when the body's defenses are weakened, or breached by surgery or other medical procedures. Such infections may also be caused by micro-organisms originating from another patient either by direct contact or through a contaminated hospital environment. This study aimed to detect the bacterial agent associated with HCAIs in some selected hospitals in Kano metropolis. A total of 401 non duplicated samples were collected from patients who spent ≥14 days and aged ≥ 18 years that were admitted in the three selected hospitals of Kano metropolis. All the samples were cultured on the appropriate culture media and subjected to standard biochemical tests according to standard bacteriological procedure. Antibiotics susceptibility testing was done using a modified form of the Kirby Bauer method. An overall prevalence of 34.4% were obtained, with higher incidence 28 (7.0%) in age group 39 – 48 years. Gram negative organisms were the most frequent organisms among which E. coli and Proteus spp have the higher percentage of 26.1% and 16.7% respectively. Most of the isolated organisms were shown to be resistant to Cotrimozaxole and Amoxicillin. From what was obtained in this study, it shows that Gram negative bacilli were frequent organisms associated with nosocomial infection in the study area. Patients with post surgical site infection has the highest percentage of nosocomial infection among which E. coli and Proteus spp are the predominant species

Keywords: Health care acquired infections, Microorganism, Bacteria, Antibiotics, Infection.