Prevalence of Bacterial and Fungal Isolates Associated with Road Traffic Accident In-patients in General Hospitals in Niger State

Aim: This study was carried out to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria and fungi isolated from wounds of in-patients with road traffic accidents at four General hospitals in Niger State.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria, between October 2017 and May 2018.

Methodology: Wound swabs were taken twice per patient, first swab at contact and second swab taken seven days post wound dressing. The outcome of 1000 wound swabs taken from 409 (267 male and 142 female) in-patients with road traffic accident wound treated in the General hospitals Bida, Minna, Kontagora and Suleja areas of Niger State, Nigeria.

Results: The results showed that 405 (40.5%) samples were positive for bacteria and fungi pathogens while 595 (59.5%) were negative. 262 (80.6%) swabs yielded single isolates while 46 (14.2%) yielded double organisms and 17 (5.2%) yielded three or more organisms. Of the 405 positive cultures, 347 (85.7%) were bacterial isolates while 58 (14.3%) were fungal isolates. Staphylococcus aureus predominates (37.7%), followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (15.6%), E. coli (11.4%), Streptococcus pyogenes (9.4%), Bacillus subtillis (7.2%), Klebsiella pneumonia (4.4%), Aspergillus niger (4.2%), Candida albicans (3.7%), Aspergillus flavus (2.7%), Candida pseudotropicallis (2.2%) and Mucor pusillus (1.5%).

Conclusion: Most bacterial isolates were sensitive to Levofloxacin, Ciprofloxacin, Streptomycin and Gentamycin, while others showed some degree of resistance to the remaining antibiotics. Klebsiella pneumoniae showed the highest resistance to all the antibiotics used. All the fungi isolated were highly sensitive to the antifungal drugs used except Griseofulvin.