Prevalence of multidrug resistant organisms in an intensive care burn unit

During January to December, 1998, analysis of an outbreak of infections in the burn intensive care unit (BICU) of the hospital attached to the Dayanan d Medical College, Ludhiana was carried out. A total of 868 clinical sample s from 290 patients with more than 40 per cent thermal injury were investig ated. These samples included 322 wound swabs, 325 blood and 221 urine sampl es, Bacterial pathogens were isolated from 80, 62 and 48 per cent samples o f pus, blood and urine respectively. Among the nine different pathogens iso lated, the more common were Pseudomona aeruginosa from pus, Staphylococcus aureus from blood and Escherichia coli from urine samples. Multidrug resist ance was observed among these predominant pathogens. identical drug suscept ibility pattern was depicted by large number of isolates of Ps. aeruginosa, Staph. aureus, Ksch. coli and Proteus mirabilis. Similar pathogens with id entical drug sensitivity pattern were isolated from environmental samples o f the BICU. The ongoing outbreak of hospital acquired infection (AAI) was s ignificantly reduced after strictly adhereing to the guidelines for control of HAI.