Abstract
BACKGROUND: Bacterial meningitis is a serious inflammation of the meninges. Antimicrobial therapy on early cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination has an important role in diagnosis. The disease is still challenging in developing countries because of poor (diagnostic set-up, socioeconomic conditions, management), and misuse of antimicrobial therapy results in emerging antimicrobial-resistant strains. Therefore, this hospital based cross sectional study was aimed to assess the antimicrobial sensitivity profile and bacterial isolates among patients suspected of pyogenic meningitis at Hawassa University Hospital from February 2017 to 2018. RESULTS: A total of 394 patients suspected as meningitis were included. Of these 210 (53.3%) were males and 184 (46.7%) were females. The carriage rate of bacterial pathogens was 27(6.9%). The common clinical presentations were fever 330 (83.8%), headache 205 (52.0%) and neck stiffness 179(45.4%) followed by altered mental status 125(31.7%). Neck stiffness P = 0.001 (AOR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.06-6.53), Hx of seizure P = 0.043, (AOR = 1.39, 95% CI 1.15-5.99), Nuchal rigidity P = 0.001* (AOR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.06-4.48) were significantly associated with culture positivity. The pathogens isolated in this study were N. meningitidis the most frequent isolate 12(44.4%) followed by S. pneumoniae 5 (18.5%), E. coli 4(14.8%), H. influenza 3(13.6%), S. aureus 2(11.1%) and K. pneumoniae 1(3.7%). S. pneumoniae was (100%) resistance to penicillin, (80%) amoxicillin, and (20%) Cefotaxime. S. aureus was (100%) resistant to penicillin, amoxicillin, and ciprofloxacin. N. meningitidis was (100%) resistant to penicillin, (66.7%) Ceftriaxone and (41.7%) chloramphenicol. In this study a single isolate was also resistant to a different antibiotic. CONCLUSION: The prevention of bacterial meningitis needs serious attention since the isolated bacteria showed single and multiple antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and the variable nature of isolated etiological agents makes it reasonable to provide continuous future updates on local resistance of common antibiotics and optimize the most frequent bacteria associated with meningitis in the hospital. Therefore; further, survey study with a better design of antimicrobial susceptibility at large scale to control the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the change in the causative organism of bacterial meningitis in the study area and at a national level is required.