BURDEN OF HOSPITAL ACQUIRED INFECTIONS AND ANTIMICROBIAL USE IN LIBYA HOSPITALS ADULT INTENSIVE CARE UNITS

Abstract

Evaluate drug resistance of bacteria isolated from equipment placed close to patients in an Intensive Care Unit of a Central hospital in Gharian.Libya is a lower middle-income country with no national surveillance system for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). We assessed the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial use in adult intensive care units (ICUs) in Libya.This is a cross-sectional study. The samples were collected with swabs moistened with Trypticase Soy Broth, which were then cultured in sheep blood agar and MacConkey agar. The phenotypic identification performed was based on the morphology of the strains and biochemical results. The drugs resistance analysis was based on Kirby-Bauer’s Disk Diffusion protocol. Results:A rate of 94.4% of the analyzed equipment was contaminated. The most frequently isolated microorganisms were: Acinetobacter sp., Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas sp. Just about 75% of Acinetobacter sp. was resistant to piperacillin associated to tazobactam, mero-penem and levofloxacin. Similarly, 36.3% of S. aureus showed resistance to oxacillin and 10% of Pseudomonas sp. was resistant to the drugs tested.