Objectives: Investigating the prevalence and sensitivity of germs isolated from newborn in a referral hospital in Bogotá. Suggesting an empirical antibiotic treatment for neonatal infection.
Methods: Cultures taken between February and December 2002 were analysed. Blood cultures were processed using BacT/ALERT (Durham, NC), urine cultures by UROCULT (Bio-Bacter) and catheter tips in thioglycollate. BBL CRYSTAL identification system (BD, Sparks, MD) was used for identifying germs. Antibiotic sensitivity was determined by disk diffusion.
Results: There were 1,097 positive aerobic and facultative aerobic germ cultures; 64.3% were Gram-positive, 30.6% Gram-negative and 4.9% were yeasts. Gram-positive germs consisted of coagulase-negative staphylococci (64.2%), enterococcus (13.8%) and coagulase-positive staphylococci (13.3%). The most frequent Gram-negatives were Klebsiella (45.2%), Eschericha coli (30.9%) and Serratia (10.1%). Staphylococcus epidermidis accounted for 64% of the coagulase-negative staphylococci. S. epidermidis susceptibility to vancomycin was 100%. Coagulase-negative staphylococci susceptibility to rifampin and amikacin was 59% and 67.4% (respectively). Coagulase-negative staphylococci resistance to beta-lactams was 86.4% (95% CI: 82.3-89.9). Coagulase-positive staphylococci sensitivity to vancomycin was 100%. Gram-negative susceptibility to imipenem was 98.1% (95% CI: 89.9-99.9), 78.1% to gentamicin (95% CI: 64.9-88.2) and 46.6% to amikacin (95% CI: 28.3-65.7).
Conclusions: There was high coagulase-negative staphylococci prevalence in neonatal infection (particularly S. epidermidis). All S. epidermidis and coagulase-positive staphylococci were sensitive to vancomycin. There was increasing coagulase-negative staphylococci and Gram-negative resistance to oxacillin and amikacin, respectively.