INCIDENCE OF PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS IN CLINICAL SPECIMENS FROM HOSPITALS IN SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

The pattern and frequency of bacterial isolates cultured from 687 clin ical specimens from four University teaching hospitals in South Wester n Nigeria were determined. A total of 707 bacterial isolates were cult ured from 18 different clinical sources giving arm average of 1.03 bac teria per sample identified in this collection. Of these, gram negativ e rods constituted 78.1% and the rest were staphylococci. The most com mon organism isolated in urine samples was E. coli (32.1%) whilst S. a ureus (28.9%) was the most frequently isolated organism from wounds, A n interesting observation was the significant occurrence of Aeromonas hydrophilia and Kebsiella pneumoniae in urine samples.