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Background: The emergence of Moraxella catarrhalis as a nosocomial pathogen in the last decade with increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistant strains has gained interest. In immunocompromised hosts, the bacterium can cause a variety of severe infections, including pneumonia, endocarditis, septicemia and meningitis. Aim: The purpose of our current study was to evaluate the prevalence and resistance pattern of M. catarrhalis causing RTI among cancer patients. Methods: Patients suspected to be suffering from respiratory tract infection (RTI) were taken up for the study. All specimens were cultured. Identification was done by standard microbiological methods. Certain criteria were considered for determining the pathogenic significance of Moraxella catarrhalis. Result: Out of the total 355 respiratory samples received, 100 (28.1%) respiratory samples showed meaningful growths. The rest of 255 (71.8%) of the respiratory samples produced no significant respiratory bacterial pathogen or no growth. Out of the 100 meaningful samples 124 respiratory pathogens were isolated. Among 124 isolates 19 (15.3%) were Moraxella catarrhalis. Other bacterial isolates were as follows: Pseudomonas aeruginosa 17 (13.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 17 (13.7%), Escherichia coli 14 (11.2%), Acinetobacter baumanii 10(8.0%), Streptococcus spp 10 (8.0%), Staphylococcus spp 9 (7.2%), Candida albicans 8 (6.4%), Staphylococcus aureus 7 (5.6%) and others 13 (10.4%). The finding shows M. catarrhalis as one of the predominant bacterial pathogen causing respiratory tract infection in cancer patients. The susceptibility pattern of M. catarrhalis showed that all the isolates were more susceptible to Amoxycillin-clavulanic acid (57.8%), followed by Chloramphenicol (50.1%). Patients (47.3%) with Lung carcinoma were found to be more prone to get infection by M. catarrhalis. Conclusion: Keeping in mind the increasing prevalence of patients being infected with M. catarrhalis in our region, a larger scale research should be conducted to evaluate resistance pattern of M. catarrhalis. Continued surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility pattern and application of control measures against further transmission are required to decrease the emergence of the resistant strains. |
