Occurrence and Phenotypic Characterization of Multidrug-Resistant Bacterial Pathogens Isolated from Patients in a Public Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Purpose: This study reports a cross-sectional investigation to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of the common bacterial contaminants isolated from hospitalized patients in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Materials And Methods: A total of 328 clinical samples comprising urine, blood, vaginal swab, pus aspirates, and stool were collected from a public hospital located in Mogadishu the capital city of Somalia between October 2019 to March 2020. The isolation and biochemical characterization of the bacterial isolates were performed using the conventional culture and biochemical assay tests. Similarly, antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion.

Results: A total of 275 pathogenic bacteria that include , and spp. were detected with an overall detection rate of 78.4% (257/328). Among the bacterial pathogens isolated from clinical specimens, 152 (46.3%) were , 60 (18.3%) were , 10 (3.1%) , 6 (1.8%) , and 1 (0.3%) isolate was found to be sp. The antimicrobial susceptibility assay revealed variable resistance pattern with clindamycin (40%), ampicillin (27%), vancomycin (26%), levofloxacin (23%), amoxicillin (20%), ciprofloxacin (18%) and nitrofurantoin (12%) showing the highest rate of resistance. Moreover, evaluation of multidrug resistance showed that had the highest multidrug resistance rate, with 19 isolates showing resistance to more than two drugs, followed by with three isolates. In contrast, each of sp. and had one isolate each that exhibited multidrug resistance characteristics.

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed the occurrence of a number antimicrobial-resistant bacterial pathogens whose prevalence varies with age and sex. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive antimicrobial profiling of bacterial isolates during the management of patients in the hospital.