Aetiology and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates in community acquired pneumonia patients at Asir region, Saudi Arabia

Background Community acquired pneumonia is a commonly presenting respiratory tract infection around the world. Its treatment is problematic at times because of diversity of infecting organisms and change in susceptibility pattern to commonly prescribed antimicrobials. Methods This was a single centred prospective cross sectional study. About 165 patients diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia were included and blood samples, sputum samples were taken for culture sensitivity and antimicrobial susceptibility. Results Of the 165 patients (43% males and 57% females), 77 (46.6%) patients tested positive for bacterial pathogens out of a total of 165. The most common pathogen wasStreptococcus pneumonia(34%) followed on byHemophilus influenza(16%),Staphylococcus aureus(13%)Klebsiella(12%),Pseudomonas aeruginosa(10%),Legionella(6%),Eschericha coli(5%) andProteus mirabilis(2%). The sensitivity pattern of all 77 bacterial isolates was high for cephalosporins (ceftriaxone, 81%; ceftazidime, 80%), penicillins (amoxicillin/sulbactam, 70%), quinolones (levofloxacin, 74%) and aminoglycosides (amikacin, 80.5%). The sensitivity to macrolides (azithromycin, 59.7%; clarithromycin, 53.2%) and tetracycline's (55.8%) is somewhat intermediate and low for ampicillin (42.8%) and cotrimoxazole (51.9%). Conclusion The decreased susceptibility to macrolides and tetracyclines is a matter of concern and judicious use of antimicrobials should be done to prevent further rates of resistance.