Bacteriology and Antibiotic Prescription Patterns in a Malawian Tertiary Hospital Burns Unit
ABSTRACTIntroductionInfections are responsible for up to 85% of deaths in patients with burn injuries. Proper management of infections in patients with burns requires knowledge of local microbial landscape and antimicrobial resistance patterns. Most burns units in low to middle income countries lack this data to guide patient management.Methods and resultsWe conducted a retrospective audit of adult (≥17 years) patient records admitted between at 1st June 2007 and May 2017 at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Burns unit in Blantyre Malawi with an index complaint of burn injury. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to determine antibiotic prescription patterns, microbial isolates and antimicrobial resistance patterns on the 500 patient files that met the inclusion criteria. Cephalosporin’s and Penicillin’s constituted 72.3% of the 328 antibiotic prescriptions given to 212 patients and 84% of all prescriptions were potentially inappropriate. A total of 102 bacterial isolates were identified and a majority (30.4%; n=31) were resistant to Aminoglycosides and Aminocyclitols (23.5%; n=24); seconded by Penicillin’s at 19.6% (n=20). Pseudomonas, staphylococcus and streptococcus species constituted 36.1%, 25% and 16.7% of all resistant bacteria that were isolated and they were thus the most common bacterial isolates. Drug resistance was more common among gram negative bacteria (48.8% versus 26.2%) and a greater proportion of patients (74.1%) that had antibiotic sensitivity testing were affected by drug resistant gram negative bacteria which appear on the World Health Organisation list of priority pathogens.ConclusionThe results of our preliminary study point towards nosocomial gram negative bacteria which appear on the World Health Organisations list of priority pathogens as the more common sources of antibiotic resistance. This scenario is potentially driven by inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions as well as clinical and laboratory diagnostic imprecision in addition to the universally recognised post burn pathophysiological changes of hypermetabolism and immunosuppression. Improvements in the areas of antimicrobial stewardship, diagnostic capacity and burns related research are needed in order to achieve optimal therapeutic outcomes and resource utilisation.