A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of Colostrum And Gentamicin On Organisms Causing Ophthalmia Neonatorum

Abstract

Ophthalmia neonatorumis a formof conjunctivitis occurring in the newborn and occurs during the first 28 days of life. It can bea leading cause of blindness in newborns.This studywas carried out to determine if colostrum (breast milk) has any effect on organisms implicated in ophthalmia neonatorum and to compare the effect with that of gentamicin, a commercially available antibiotic. One hundred and two samples were collected from 100 neonates with symptoms by swabbing the lower conjunctival surfaces and these swabswere analyzedmicroscopically.The age of the neonates ranged frombirth to 10 days and 0 mean agewas 5.80days. The specimenswere cultured onto pre-labeled oven dried agar plates at 37 C for 24 hours.The chocolate plateswere incubated overnight, afterwhich the cultured plateswith growthwere 0 streaked and sub-cultured for another 24 hours at 37 C. The agar plates without growth were further 0 incubated for 24 hours at 37 C, after which those with growth were sub-cultured for purification. Antibiotic susceptibility patterns were determined by using disk-diffusion tests. After culture and emergence of growth of the differentmicroorganisms, 65.60%were found to be, Staphylococcus aureus 22.90% were Streptococcus spp, 9.40% were Escherichia coli, while 2.10% were. Neisseria gonorrhea Gentamicin inhibitory effects on causative organisms were Staphylococcus aureus 60.30%, Streptococcus spp 72.70%, Escherichia coli 100%, and Neisseria gonorrhea 100%. Colostrum had an inhibitory action on two of the organisms isolated (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus spp) but it's actionwas sustained for4 hours in about 42.20% of Staphylococcus aureus and for6 hours in 53.30%of Streptococcus spp. Due to this short time effect of colostrumon only two of the causative organisms, it is recommended that neonates with ophthalmia neonatorum be taken to the hospital and conventional antibiotic treatmentbe giventothem