Neonatal nasopharyngeal bacterial colonization: Prevalence, antimicrobial resistance, and concomitant early-onset sepsis

Background: Early-onset sepsis is one of the most common causes of mortality in neonates. This studyaimed to determine the prevalence rate of nasopharyngeal colonization with commonbacterial agents causing early-onset neonatal sepsis and their relationship with blood cultureoutcomes in neonates.MethodAll neonates transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit were included in the study.Posterior pharynx secretions were swabbed and cultured. The isolated bacteria wereidentified by biochemical standard tests. Antibiotic Sensitivity Test was performed by thedisk diffusion method using Mueller-Hinton agar.ResultsThe pharyngeal specimens collected from 114 newborns were positive in 83 (72.8%) ofcases. Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most common bacterium. Twelve neonates hadpositive blood cultures. Concurrent positive blood and pharyngeal culture were reported in 8(7%) cases, which in 3 (37.5%) of them blood and pharyngeal cultures were similar.ConclusionStaphylococcus epidermidis accounted for 38.6% of bacteria cultured from pharyngeal swabsand 66.7% of bacteria cultured from blood samples, 37.5% of which were resistant toampicillin and 100% sensitive to vancomycin. One-hundred percent of E. coli cultures fromneonatal pharynges were resistant to ampicillin and about 50% of them were resistant togentamicin, cefotaxime, and ceftriaxone.