Nosocomial Bacterial Infection in Misurata Central Hospital, Libya

• Salem Sariti

  Biology Department, Libyan Academy, Misurata, Libya

  Author

• Narjes Abuoud

  Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Misurata University, Misurata, Libya

  Author

Nosocomial infection is a major global safety concern for both patients and health-care professionals. During hospitalization, the patient is exposed to pathogens through different sources, such as the environment, healthcare staff, and other infected patients. The human and financial costs of treating surgical site infections are increased. Additionally, the number of surgical procedures performed continues to rise, and surgical patients are initially seen with increasingly complex comorbidities. This study aims to investigate the sterility state of the surgical sites before and after an operation in both surgical categories (clean surgery and clean-contaminated surgery), to isolate and identify the bacterial species from the collected samples, and to evaluate the nosocomial infection in Misurata central hospital if it is under control or not. This study was performed during the period between Mar/2018 and September 2018 on the patients who were admitted to the surgical departments (MSW, FSW, HDU) and the ICU. 61 samples have been taken from each surgical type (post-operation). As for control, the same number of samples, from the same patients, were taken from the suggested surgical wound site before starting the sterilization for an operation (pre-operation). Two swabs have been collected from each patient before the operation from the site of incision and after the operation from the wound before the patient is discharged. However, in this study, out of 134 samples with bacterial growth, including pre and post-operation, 111 samples were gram-positive bacteria (82.8%), and only 23 samples were gram-negative bacteria (17.2%) with a p-value of 0.000. The infection rate (14.8%) in clean surgery, the infection rate (23%) in clean-contaminated surgery, and the overall infection rate is 23 out of 122, the total infection rate=18.9% with a p-value of 0.928. In conclusion, the nosocomial infection in Misurata Central Hospital is caused by the gram-positive bacteria (82.8%), which is associated with non-significant morbidity and mortality. The infection rates are 14.8% and 23% in clean and clean-contaminated surgery, respectively, which are non- significant. Finally, the nosocomial infection in Misurata Central Hospital is still under control. Therefore, infection control programmes should be put in place to decrease the nosocomial infection rate in addition to public educational programs, which is the responsibility of all healthcare professionals.

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