High burden of antimicrobial resistance among gram negative bacteria causing healthcare associated infections in a critical care unit of Nepal

BACKGROUND: Healthcare associated infections (HCAI) and antimicrobial resistance are principal threats to the patients of intensive care units and are the major determining factors for patient outcome. They are associated with increased morbidity, mortality, excess hospitalization and financial costs. The present study is an attempt to investigate the spectrum and antimicrobial resistance of bacterial isolates involved in healthcare associated infections (HCAI) in the patients of a critical care unit at a tertiary care university hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. METHODS: A laboratory based study was conducted over the period of 15 months (January 2014 to March 2015) among the patients of intensive care unit of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal. Clinical specimens from patients with suspected healthcare-associated infection were processed and bacterial isolates were identified with standard microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibilities of the isolated strains were determined according to the CLSI guidelines and β-lactamases (ESBL, AmpC, MBL and KPC) were detected by various phenotypic tests. RESULTS: One hundred and forty nine clinical specimens received from 135 patients suspected of HCAI (out of 491 patients) were found with significant bacterial growth. Specimens were from patients suspected of hospital-acquired pneumonia (16%, 79/491), bloodstream infections (5.7%, 28/491), surgical site infections (4.7%, 23/491), and urinary tract infections (3.9%, 19/491). Acinetobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Escherichia coli and Burkholderia cepacia were the leading bacterial pathogens. Extremely high level of drug resistance (95.8%) along with the production of β-lactamases (ESBL; 43.7%, AmpC; 27.5%), MBL; 50.2% and KPC; 4.2%) was observed among Gram negative bacterial isolates. CONCLUSION: Healthcare associated infections are very common in our ICU. Gram negative bacterial pathogens are major culprits associated with these infections and there is alarming state of drug resistance among these isolates. Continuous surveillance and establishment of preventive and control measures of healthcare associated infections are urgently needed in our setting.