• Chalachew Genet, Gebre Kibru, and Kannan Hemalatha.
• Sumara University. chaliedallas@yahoo.com
• Ethiop. Med. J. 2012 Jan 1;50(1):67-74.

BackgroundThe role of the hospital environment as a reservoir of potential pathogens has received increasing attention. There are several reports demonstrating contamination of a wide variety of environmental sites in operating rooms (ORs) and surgical wards (SWs) which lead to nosocomial spread.ObjectivesTo determine the degree of bacterial contamination and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of isolates from floor and tabletop surfaces in ORs and SWs at Jimma University Specialized Hospital (JUSH).MethodsA cross sectional study was conducted on 144 floor and tabletop surfaces from October to January 2009/2010. Samples were investigated for identification of bacterial species following standard procedures and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed using disc diffusion technique. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 and compared with the proposed standard value.ResultsThe mean aerobic colony counts (ACCs) for tabletop surfaces (34 CFU/cm2) and floors (19CFU/cm2) in SWs were significantly higher than the set ACC standard for hand contact surfaces (< 5 CFU/cm2) P < 0.00. The ACCs obtained from tabletop surfaces (6.2 CFU/cm2) and floors (10.1CFU/cm2) in ORs were also exceeding the standard. Over 55% of gram negative bacteria were identified from Critical Zone of ORs. Staphylococcus aureus was the must frequently isolated bacterium accounting 33.3% followed by Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp each with 11.1%. Moreover, S. aureus showed 100% resistance to methicillin and multidrug resistant Enterobacteriaceae were also seen in more than 90 % of isolates.ConclusionsAn increased bacterial contamination was measured in both ORs and SWs of the JUSH and the isolated bacteria were also resistant for most of the antibiotics used as a treatment options in the study area. Therefore, appropriate infection control measures needs to be taken to keep the contamination level within the proposed standard.

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