Isolation of serratia marcescens from blood cultures in paediatric population at the Children's Hospital Lahore

Objective: to determine the frequency of serratia marcescens in positive blood cultures and its sensitivity pattern to various antibiotics in paediatric population. methodology: the present study was conducted at the children's hospital and the institute of child health,lahore. a total of 7680 blood cultures were processed for suspected cases of blood borne infections from different wards of the children's hospital lahore. the organisms were identified by routine laboratory tests including biochemical tests along with api 10s system. antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by kirby-bauer disk diffusion method. results: out of total 7680 blood cultures over a period of six months 1240 were positive blood cultures and the frequency of the serratia marcescens was 17(1.4%) in positive samples. the gender distribution of s. marcescens was 13(76.5%) in male patients and in females 4(23.5%). these isolates were highly sensitive to amikacin,meropenem tazobactum/piperacillin and were resistant to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and cephalosporins (ceftriaxone,cefuroxime,ceftazidime and cefotaxime). conclusion: although in this present study frequency of serratia marcescens is low but these infections are a challenge for healthcare setting because of difficult treatment and multi drug resistance patterns to several antibiotics,thus physicians are left with a limited choice of antibiotics.