Antimicrobial Resistance of Bacterial Contaminants of Hospital Doorknobs in Selected Hospitals in Khartoum State

Abstract

Door handles are documented as breeding grounds for pathogens and presents as focal point of high risk common contact surfacing which facilitates transmission of pathogens within the hospital buildings. Hand hygiene has been singled out as the most important and one of the most effective means of preventing pathogens associated with health care services. This cross sectional study was aimed to investigate the antimicrobial resistance of bacterial contaminant of hospital door knobs in Khartoum state during the period from February to May 2022. Five hospitals of four different wards were included in this study. One hundred (n=100) swabs were taken from (100) door handles from five hospitals of four different locations .These swabs were inoculated on MacConkey and blood agar. Bacterial identification was carried out by different conventional methods and antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done by disc diffusion method. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 25. Out of the 100 samples processed, 92 (92%) of them showed bacterial growth. The bacteria isolated were S. aureus 34(37%) and nosocomial bacteria, such as Peudomonas.spp 24(26%), Klebsiella.spp 11 (12%), E coli 7(8%). S. epidermidis 7 and B.spp 9 constitutes 7% and 10% respectively. The isolated bacteria showed varying susceptibility pattern to the antibiotics used and were all-resistant to at least two antibiotics. Highest resistance percentage of the isolates was observed against Penicillin (51%) followed by Ceftriaxone (40%) and Clindamycin (39%). In conclusion findings of this study indicate the presence of bacterial strains resistant to more than two antibiotics in door handles of a hospital which can serve as potential source of diseases.