Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Blood from 136 neonates admitted at the neonatal units of some hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria and vaginal swab samples of their mothers were obtained and processed using standard microbiological protocols. The most common manifestation of infectious disease amongst the neonates was sepsis (33.8%) followed by pneumonia (27.3%) and meningitis (6.6%). About 13% of the neonates have low birth weight. The most commonly isolated bacteria from both neonatal samples were Staphylococcus aureus (27.9%) and Klebsiella oxytoca (22.1%); while Streptococcus pneumonia (1.5%) was the least isolated. Staphylococcus aureus (19.1%) and Klebsiella oxytoca (13.2%) were the most frequently isolated bacteria from maternal swab samples while Proteus mirabilis were the least isolated. Neonatal bacterial isolates were most sensitive to gentamicin (70.6%) and least sensitive to cloxacillin (1.00%). Similarly, maternal bacterial isolates were most sensitive to gentamicin (58.1%) and least sensitive to cloxacillin (8.09%). Bacterial isolates from neonates and their mothers harbored resistant plasmids. Most neonatal and maternal bacterial isolates were positive for hemolysin. They also showed intermediate and full resistance to the bactericidal action of normal serum. These results show a high rate of neonatal bacterial infections among neonates born in Benin City, Nigeria which have implications for neonatal survival.

Biography

Aziegbemhin S A is an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, University of Benin, Nigeria. He has obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in Microbiology (Medical Microbiology) from the University of Benin. He has high research bias for infectious disease studies, environmental/public health and immunology (host-pathogen interaction studies). He has authored 4 journal publications. He has done some studies on bacterial infections in neonates as well as post-partum mothers in Benin City, Nigeria. He is a winner of the Brenda Howe Africa Scholarship 2012, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom.

Email: abumhere.aziegbemhin@uniben.edu