Serratia marcescens as Opportunistic Pathogen and the Importance of Continuous Monitoring of Nosocomial Infection in Makah City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to the evaluation of frequency and distribution of Serratia marcescens in the hospital departments and determination of antimicrobial resistance of the isolated strains. Methods: The study included 81 Serratia marcescens strains isolated from 61 patients hospitalized in the in the different hospital wards of Al-Noor Specialist Hospital within the period from 1/11/ 2012 to 1/11/2013. The strains were isolated from wound swabs, blood cultures, sputum, urine culture, fluid, catheter and throat swab, wound swabs, blood cultures and cerebrospinal fluid. Re-sults: The isolates were identified by conventional method and the results and susceptibility test-ing were confirmed by VITEC-2 Compact. Most frequently Serratia marcescens has been implicated in ICU [21%] followed by male medical [18.5%] and emergency department [12.3%]. The resis-tance of Serratia strains was high, excepting imipenem (15%), Meropenem (27) and the resistance was higher with ampicillin (97.5%), Cefoxitin (90%) and Tetracycline (86%). Conclusion: Conti-nuous monitoring of nosocomial infections is indispensable. Phenotypic characterization of the isolates is useful for studying the relationship of microbial pathogens.