Prevalence of antibacterial resistance among hospitalized patients in Tigray, Ethiopia, 2021: A cross-sectional design.

Objectives: To describe the prevalence of antibacterial resistance among hospitalized patients in Tigray.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was applied in hospitalized septic medical patients in Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from March 2020 to January 2021. Socio-demographic, clinical, and laboratory-related data was collected, and descriptive analysis was done to present the result.

Results: In this study, a total of 153 hospitalized septic patients were included with a median age of 30 years (interquartile range 22-49). A total of 187 different samples were collected from 153 participants of the blood and foci of infection, and bacterial isolates were found in 103 (55%) samples. A total of 70 (45.6%) septic patients showed antibacterial resistance at least to one antibiotic. The most common isolates were followed by species with equal distribution. These isolates were found to be resistant to ampicillin (79.9%), cotrimoxazole (64.1%), and ciprofloxacin (64.1%).

Conclusions: This study revealed a significant problem of antibacterial resistance in the referral hospital. The most commonly prescribed and affordable antibiotics were found to be resistant. So, the hospital and the country as well are expected to minimize the magnitude of the problem through different antimicrobial resistance strategic stewardship initiatives.