Presentation by Thippichetty Thiagarajan, Ph.D., Viola Tuyud, Diomar Salazar, Jesse Chun and Lorna Perez at the 2nd Belize National Research Conference, 2019

Abstract: 

Surgical site infections are amongst the leading cause of morbidity, mortality and cost due to increased hospital stay by patients. A study was conducted to understand antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of major pathogens isolated from surgical site infections in Belize. A study was conducted utilizing existing data for a nine-year period collected through the Belize Health Information System, Ministry of Health. Raw data from 2009 to 2017, was compiled and arranged and a detailed statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS and Microsoft-Excel. Descriptive analysis was conducted to extrapolate sensitivity patterns of isolates. From the 630 samples that were cultured only 50% (315) had pathogen growth. A single pathogen was isolated from 93.3% of the samples while multiple pathogens were isolated from 6.7% of samples. The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus aureus (31.1%), followed by Escherichia coli (17.6%), Klebsiella spp (13.5%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.7%) and Enterobacter spp. (6.45%). Aerobic Gram negative bacteria accounted for 58.1%, while aerobic Gram positive bacteria accounted for 38.4%. Cesarean procedures accounted for the highest number of infections with 28.3% while the age group most affected was between 20 – 29 years of age. Sixty-two percent of Staphylococcus aureus isolates were resistant to Erythromycin whereas all of Escherichia coli isolates (100%) were resistant to Erythromycin. The antimicrobial resistant patterns of the pathogens showed that more than 20% of all isolates were resistant to most antibiotics in all the years of the study with some isolates were seen multidrug resistant. More than 50% of all isolates during the study period showed resistance to erythromycin. Continuous surveillance of SSIs and compliance to regulations is essential and a reduction in antibiotic usage must be targeted as this will help to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance in pathogens.

Key words: Belize medical, public health, anti-biotics, drug resistance