Abstract:

Background: Blood stream infections (BSIs) among patients admitted in hospitals have been known to increase the morbidity and mortality especially when it is due to multidrug resistant bacteria. Infections due to bacteria have been a life threating problem throughout the world, hence this study provided information about prevalence, bacterial pathogens, and antibiotic patterns and associated factors of blood stream infections among patient admitted in Mwanza health care facilities, Tanzania.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted involving 288 hospitalized patients at BMC, Sekou-Toure regional referral hospital, Sumve, Magu and Misungwi district hospitals with sign and symptoms of bacterial infection in Mwanza-Tanzania. Pre-tested data collection tools was used to collect information from study participants. Blood was collected from patients aseptically and processed in the laboratory for culture, bacterial identification tests, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Data was recorded in the log book then transferred to excel sheet for coding, cleaning and analysis by using STATA version 13.

Results: The prevalence of blood stream infections (BSIs) among patients admitted was 15.3(44/288); and specific prevalence with health care facilities at BMC, Magu, Misungwi, Sekou-Toure and Sumve being 20.2%, 6.6%, 16.7%, 16.1%, and 13.3% respectively. The commonest pathogenic bacteria isolated were Staphylococcus aureus 19(43.2%), and Klebsiella pneumoniae 6(13.6%). Among GNB isolated in this study, they were more sensitive to Amikacin (100%), meropenem (100%) and Tazobactam-Piperacillin (100%). S. aureus were found to be resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and erythromycin (57.9%) and three S. aureus were found to be MRSA. Participants who were using tap water as their source of drinking water and those with invasive devices were significantly associated with bacterial culture positive (p value 0.01 and 0.045, respectively).

Conclusion: The prevalence of BSIs (15.3%) in this multicenter study is highly caused by Staphylococcus aureus. This study has shown that introduction of culture and AST services in district hospitals is feasible.

Significance: This study collected the data in various hospitals across Mwanza region in real-time and thereby providing evidence-based information for specific antimicrobial therapies.