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Background & Aims of the Study: Antibiotic resistance is an important problem in health
care. The aim of this study was the survey of prevalence of bacteria isolated in a university
affiliated hospital (Kerman, Iran) and detection of antibiotic resistance among major
pathogens.
Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, during a 3-year period (from June
2006 to June 2009) 14699 samples such as urine, blood, sputum, and cerebrospinal fluid
obtained from patients hospitalized in a university affiliated hospital (Kerman, Iran). After
isolation and identification of bacteria using standard microbiologic methods, antibiotic
resistance testing was performed with the diffusion-disk method for several antibiotics.
Results: A total of 1910 (12.15%) specimens were positive for bacterial contamination.
The cultures most positive cases were from urine specimen (67.75%). The majority of
frequent microorganisms isolated were E. coli (41.52%), Staphylococcus aureus (17.96%),
Klebsiella pneumoniae (9.48%), Staphylococcus coagulase-negative (8.27%), and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7.49%), respectively. The high rate of resistance of E. coli was
related to amoxicillin (70.36%), Staphylococcus aureus to oxacillin (66.76%), Klebsiella
pneumoniae to amoxicillin (62.76%), Staphylococcus coagulase-negative to penicillin
(74.68%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to cefotaxime (71.32%).
Conclusions: We found that antimicrobial resistance is a problem of our hospital. The high
consumption of antibiotic in the community can be a cause of a major problem in treatment.