Describing the bacterial resistance profile of paediatric laboratory specimens isolated in a resource limited setting

INTRODUCTION: WHO estimates that multidrug resistant bacteria kill over 200,000 newborns. Despite this alarming figure, the microorganism profile and their resistance pattern has not yet been widely studied in our setting till date. We aimed to identify commonly isolated bacteria and describe their antibiotic resistance pattern in Cameroon. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Laquintinie Hospital Douala (LHD) on blood culture specimen collected from paediatric patients consulted at LHD over a 1-year period running from March 2021 to February 2022. Microbiological analysis was performed using the VITEK^MD 2 compact automated machine. The reference for the interpretation of antibiotic susceptibility was the Antibiogram Committee of the French Society of Microbiology (CASFM) and the European committee EUCAST. RESULTS: We included 127 positive blood culture samples, that were mostly from neonates (n=52, 40.9%) with a mean age was 3.85 ± 5.55 years and a M/F sex ratio of 1.59. Klebsiella species (n=21, 16.5%) accounted for most isolates. Most isolates were extensively resistant (n=58, 45.7%), pan-resistant (n=30, 23.6%) and multi-drug resistant (n=28, 22.0%). Full sensitivity was only reported in eleven isolates (n=11, 8.7%). Isolates were sensitive to extended spectrum cephalosporins in 26.7% and Aminoglycosides in only 40.9% of cases. Pseudomonas luteola (n=1), Staphylococcus xylosus (n=1), Enterobacter dunanensis (n=1), Staphylococcus haemolyticus (n=2) exclusively exhibited pan-resistance profiles and were mostly found in neonates (n=2/5, 40%). CONCLUSION: Klebsiella spp. were the commonest isolates overall, although age-specific pathogens were identified. Only 8.7% of isolates exhibited full sensitivity at Laquintinie. This proportion is alarming and requires an urgent public health response.