Dominant Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria in Five Biggest Hospitals in Asir Region from March to June 2018

There is a rapid increase in the emergence of multidrug resistance which consider as one of the public health threats in all over the world. MDR was defined as acquired non-susceptibility to at least one agent in three or more antimicrobial categories. The present study aims to determine the dominant multi-drug resistant bacteria in the five biggest hospitals in Asir region, Saudi Arabia. Antibiotic-resistant isolates were collected from five hospitals of the Asir region between 30 March and 1 June 2018. The isolates were tentatively identified by routine bench tests and confirmed by using VITEK® 2 Compact. The antibiotic susceptibility of these isolates was identified using the latest instrument. Routine bench tests and VITEK® 2 Compact identified 12 dominant bacterial strains including; Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus haemolytics, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecium, Enterobacter cloacae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Proteus mirabilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Proteus penneri. P. aeruginosa was majorly found in all selected hospitals. Antibiotic susceptibility in this study showed that the highest resistance rate was against penicillins (21.6%) and cephalosporin (20.1%). These isolates have shown resistance to fluoroquinolones (13.8%) and aminoglycosides (10.1%). The study concluded that the resistance rate was high against β lactam antibiotics, particularly cephalosporins, which is considered as a new threat in hospitals.