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Frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility of aerobic bacterial vaginal isolates.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility of aerobic bacterial isolates from high vaginal swab cultures.


DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.


PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY
Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, from January 2003 to February 2004.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
The subjects included 136 symptomatic women attending Obstetrics and Gynecology Out-Patient Department. A proforma was filled to document the demographic details, presenting complaint and examination findings. High vaginal swabs were taken for gram staining, culture and antimicrobial sensitivity testing using standard microbiologic techniques.


RESULTS
Normal flora was isolated in 30% of the cases, followed by Candida spp. (21.3%), Enterococcus spp. (14.7%), E.coli (10.2%), Beta hemolytic Streptococcus spp. (7.3%), Staphylococcus spp. (4.4%), Enterobacter spp. (4.4%), while Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Klebsiella spp. were isolated 1.5% each. Enterococcus, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus were mostly sensitive to penicillin and amoxicillin while E.coli and Klebsiella were sensitive to (piperacillin-Tazobactum, Imipenem and vancomycin. Enterococci species showed significant resistance to aminoglycoside antibiotics (68.8% to 81.3%) resistance to vancomycin was 5%.


CONCLUSION
Thirty percent of symptomatic patients had normal flora on culture. Candida spp was the most frequent pathogen isolated. Co-amoxiclav should be used as empiric therapy until culture-sensitivity report is available.