Vol. 14 No. 1-25 (2023): Prevalence and Antibiotic Resistance Profile of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from Patients attending Selected Federal Hospitals in Parts of North Central Nigeria

The study investigated the prevalence and antibiotic resistance profile of Streptococcus

pneumoniae , within the study area. The screening of 768 specimens collected from the study

areas revealed that, 29.2% of the samples were positive for Streptococcus pneumoniae , while

Klebsiella pneumoniae , Streptococcus pyogenes , and Moraxella catarrhalis were identified in

10.2%, 14.8%, and 10% of the samples, respectively. Additionally, Haemophilus influenzae ,

Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli , and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were observed in 4.4%,

19.9%, 8.2%, and 3.3% of the samples, respectively. The prevalence rate of S. pneumoniae

within the study locations were 30.6%, 26.1%, 29.2% and 31.5% from UATH, Keffi, Bida and

Lokoja centres respectively. The highest antibiotic resistance rates shown by Streptococcus

pneumoniae were observed against the more frequently consumed antibiotics such as

cefotaxime, ampicillin, tetracycline, co-trimoxazole, with average resistance rates of 53.8%,

53.7%, 53.7%, and 53% respectively. Conversely, the lowest resistance rates of 11.3%, 33%

and 37.5% were observed against levofloxacin, cephalexin and linezolid, respectively. The

study observed an average multidrug resistance rate (MDR) of 59.7% with the highest MDR

rate of 69.02% recorded from Gwagwalada center. Analysis, of infection rates by age

distribution, showed that the highest infection rate was among the pediatric patients, below

5 years (74.2%), followed by the age bracket above 65 years (66.4%). There was a higher

infection rate among females (66.1%), compared to males (52.4%). Patients with tertiary

education exhibited a slightly lower infection rate of 24.6%, in contrast to 32.9% and 27 % for

those without formal education and with secondary education, respectively. Slightly higher

infections rates were observed in the months of December and January. This was probably due

to the cold, windy and drier weather condition, which encouraged sneezing by carriers and so

increasing chances of the disease spreading to healthy persons.