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 Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana was carried out. A total of 868 clinical samples from 290 patients with more than 40 per cent thermal injury were investigated. These samples included 322 wound swabs, 325 blood and 221 urine samples. Bacterial pathogens were isolated from 80, 62 and 48 per cent samples of pus, blood and urine respectively. Among the nine different pathogens isolated, the more common were Pseudomona aeruginosa from pus, Staphylococcus aureus from blood and Escherichia coli from urine samples. Multidrug resistance was observed among these predominant pathogens. Identical drug susceptibility pattern was depicted by large number of isolates of Ps. aeruginosa, Staph. aureus, Esch. coli and Proteus mirabilis. Similar pathogens with identical drug sensitivity pattern were isolated from environmental samples of the BICU. The ongoing outbreak of hospital acquired infection (HAI) was significantly reduced after strictly adhering to the guidelines for control of HAI.