Bacterial Contamination of Hospital Equipments in Two Tertiary Health Facilities in Central Nigeria and Their Corresponding Susceptibility to Antimicrobial Agents

Hospital is a major avenue for the spread of infectious diseases known as nosocomial infections. This study investigated the bacteria that colonize hospital equipments at the Federal Medical Centre and Nasarawa State University Clinic Keffi. Swab samples of different hospital equipments were collected and examined using standard microbiological techniques. Cultural features indicates the presence of the following bacteria; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter spp. The mean bacterial load from NSUK clinic equipments (×104cfu/ml) were 0.32, 0.18, 0.19 and 0.1 for total viable, total coliform, total fecal coliform and staphylococcus aureus count respectively, while the mean bacterial load in FMC (×104cfu/ml) was 1.254, 0.347 and 0.283 for total viable count, coliform count and faecal coliform count accordingly. Frequency of occurrence of the bacteria isolates in FMC is in the order: Escherichia coli (50.0%)>Enterobacter spp. (30.0%)>Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas spp. (20.0%)>Staphylococcus aureus (0.0%); while that of NSUK clinic is in the order: Escherichia coli (50.0%)>Pseudomonas spp. (30.0%)>Staphylococcus aureus (10.0%), while Klebsiella spp. and Enterobacter spp. were not isolated at NSUK clinic. The antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the bacteria showed Pseudomonas spp. to be completely susceptible to Augmentin, Gentamicin, Chloramphenicol and Ciprofloxacin (100.0% each), while E. coli showed some degree of susceptibility to Streptomycin (44.4%), Ciprofloxacin and Perfloxacin (33.3%), Gentamicin and Sparfloxacin (22.2%), Augmentin, Ofloxacin, Septrin and Chloramphenicol (11.1%), but completely resistant to Amoxicillin. Klebsiella spp. and Enterobacter spp. were resistant to all the antibiotics tested, except for Streptomycin which they displayed high susceptibility of 100.0% and 66.7% for Klebsiella spp. and Enterobacter spp. respectively. Staphylococcus aureus was found to be resistant completely against all the antibiotics tested. Hence, it is pertinent to embrace hand hygiene so as to minimize the risk of acquiring nosocomial infections due to contaminated hospital equipments.