Antimicrobial resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus and Proteus spp. isolated from otitis media at Bahir Dar Regional Laboratory, North West Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVES

Otitis media is a major health problem of children in low income countries like Ethiopia. Thus, this study was aimed at determining the predominant bacterial isolates from discharging ear and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns.

METHODS

A retrospective study was conducted on records of 777 patients for whom ear discharge swabs were processed for culture and susceptibility tests at Bahir Dar Regional Health Research Laboratory from September 2000 to December 2008.

RESULTS

From 777 ear discharges, male patients with discharging ear constituted 459 (59%) with overall male to female ratio of 1.4:1. Their age was ranging from 2 months to 85 years. Six hundred eight (78.3%) ear discharge swabs were culture positive for bacteria. The isolation rates of S. aureus and Proteus spp. were 260 (42.7%) and 227 (37.3%) respectively. Proteus spp. was the predominant isolate in children whereas S aureus in adults (p = 0.0001). S. aureus and Proteus spp. exhibited high rates of resistance to most antimicrobial agents tested. However, they showed lower resistance rate to gentamicin and norfloxacillin.

CONCLUSION

Otitis media was a common health problem of all age groups. S. aureus and Proteus spp. were the predominant pathogens of discharging ear. Gentamicin and norfloxacillin would be the drug of choice for the empirical therapy of otitis media.