Antimicrobial Susceptibility of S. aureus to Antibiotics Used in the Treatment of Diabetic Patients with Foot Ulcers at Vihiga County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

S. aureus though the most important gram-positive bacteria that has in recent times become resistant to most of the therapeutic agents that have been developed, scientists continue to disagree on the most effective antibiotic for the treatment of S.aureus. Despite these findings, Vihiga County referral hospital lacks a policy for antimicrobial susceptibility testing making antimicrobial susceptibility of S. aureus isolated from diabetic patients with foot ulcers in Vihiga County unknown. This study investigated antimicrobial susceptibility of S. aureus to antibiotics used in the treatment of diabetic patients with foot ulcers at Vihiga County Referral Hospital, Kenya. Pus specimens from foot ulcers of diabetic patients were swabbed aseptically for S. aureus screening. All the confirmed S. aureus strains were subsequently tested for antimicrobial susceptibility based on the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method using antimicrobial discs (penicillin G, ceftriaxone and gentamycin) on Mueller Hinton Agar (MHA). Results indicated that S. aureus isolated from all the 94 diabetic patients were resistant to penicillin G, 33 were susceptible to Ceftriaxone and 36 were susceptible to Gentamycin. The study concluded that gentamycin was the most effective antibiotic with 38.3% susceptibility rate followed by ceftriaxone at 35.1%.

Keywords: S.aureus, Antimicrobial susceptibility, Diabetic foot ulcers