Antibiotics Susceptibility Pattern of Hospital Indoor Airborne Bacteria in Hawassa University Teaching and Referral Hospital, South Ethiopia

Diriba Leta et al., Page No.287 Antibiotics Susceptibility Pattern of Hospital Indoor Airborne Bacteria in Hawassa University Teaching and Referral Hospital, South Et hiopia Diriba Leta 1 , Kassaye Aragaw2 , Yared Merid2 Arba Minch University, Ethiopia Hawassa University, Ethiopia ......................................................................................................................................... Abstract: Nosocomial infection (NI) is an infection acquired whilst staying, visiting or working in a hospital o r healthcare facility. It is also defined as an infec tion acquired in hospital by a patient who was admi tted for a reason other than that infection or an infection occurring a patient in a hospital or other health care fa cility in whom the infection was not present or incubating at the time of admission. One of the risk factors for such inf ection is bacterial contamination of hospital wards indoor air by bacte ria. In view of that, the microbiological quality o f air can be considered as a mirror of the hygienic condition fo r h spital wards. A cross sectional study was condu cted from May to August 2011 in central triage, emergency, surgic al outpatient, medical outpatient, gynecology and o bstetrics, pediatrics, surgical inpatient and medical outpatie nt wards of Hawassa Teaching Referral Hospital to a ssess antibiotic susceptibility of the indoor airborne bacteria in s elected hospital wards. Air samples of the selected wards were collected using Settle Plate Method in the morning a d in the afternoons and cultured aerobically. Of the 128 indoor air samples collected from the hospital rooms, in w hich 153 isolates were isolated. High level of anti microbial resistance was observed among the isolates obtained in this study; 86.9% were resistant to 1 or more a ntimicrobials and 73.8 were multidrug resistant. Resistance was especially high against amoxicillin (64.9%) and pe nicillin (58.4%). Hospital management was advised to reduce foot trafficking and to periodically assess the qua lity of indoor air to identify and minimize/eliminate sources of m icrobial contamination.