Serratia marcescens as Opportunistic Pathogen and the Importance of Continuous Monitoring of Nosocomial Infection in Makah City, Saudi Arabia

Hani S. Faidah¹, Sami S. Ashgar¹, Abeer A. A. Barhameen¹, Hamdi M. El-Said^1*, Abdelrahman Elsawy^2,3

¹Medical Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makah City, Saudi Arabia.
²Al-Noor Specialist Hospital, Makah City, Saudi Arabia.
³Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

DOI: 10.4236/ojmm.2015.53013                

Abstract

The aim of this study was to the evaluation of frequency and distribution of Serratia marcescens in the hospital departments and determination of antimicrobial resistance of the isolated strains. Methods: The study included 81 Serratia marcescens strains isolated from 61 patients hospitalized in the in the different hospital wards of Al-Noor Specialist Hospital within the period from 1/11/2012 to 1/11/2013. The strains were isolated from wound swabs, blood cultures, sputum, urine culture, fluid, catheter and throat swab, wound swabs, blood cultures and cerebrospinal fluid. Results: The isolates were identified by conventional method and the results and susceptibility testing were confirmed by VITEC-2 Compact. Most frequently Serratia marcescens has been implicated in ICU [21%] followed by male medical [18.5%] and emergency department [12.3%]. The resistance of Serratia strains was high, excepting imipenem (15%), Meropenem (27) and the resistance was higher with ampicillin (97.5%), Cefoxitin (90%) and Tetracycline (86%). Conclusion: Continuous monitoring of nosocomial infections is indispensable. Phenotypic characterization of the isolates is useful for studying the relationship of microbial pathogens.

Keywords

Serratia marcescens, Antimicrobial Resistance, Nosocomial ?nfection

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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