Abstract

Objective: To study the bacteria etiological agents of respiratory tract infection among 280 school children in South East Nigeria, and to determine their antimicrobial resistance patterns to a panel of ten antibiotics. Methods: Throat swabs (280) were collected from students in four boarding schools located in Enugu and Onitsha metropolis. Standard microbiological procedures were used to screen these swabs to determine the prevalence of respiratory pathogens while the disc diffusion test was used to determine the antimicrobial resistance patterns of the recovered isolates. Results: Of the 280 samples screened, 57.1% were positive. Haemophilus influenzae was the most prevalent (16.1%), followed by Streptococcus pyogenes (13.9%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (12.5%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (6.8%), Staphylococcus aureus (5.4%) and Corynebacterium diphtheriae (2.5%). More isolates were recovered in the two male schools investigated. However, there was no significant difference in the overall prevalence of isolates according to sex or school location of the subjects. Greater number of isolates (56%) was recovered from those aged 11-14 years. This was statistically significant (P<0.05), compared to the other two age groups (15-18 years and 19-23 years). The pattern of resistance varied according to the bacteria species. There were multi-resistant isolates. Since these students stand the risk of contracting respiratory tract infection particularly from reservoirs among them, there is need to increase surveillance and develop better strategies to curb the increasing prevalence of respiratory tract infection in this and other similar regions of Africa. Conclusions: The spectrum of bacteria causing respiratory tract infection is still wide in Nigeria. Many isolates showed appreciable levels of antibiotic resistance apparently due to antibiotic abuse. Development of new strategies to curb this increasing prevalence of respiratory tract infection is warranted.

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