Microbial infection and antibiotic resistance patterns among Jordanian intensive care patients

Microbial infections were observed in 30% [155/519] of all patients consecutively admitted in 1993 to the adult intensive care unit in the Jordan University Hospital in Amman. Gram-negative bacteria were involved in 110 [49%], Gram-positive bacteria in 69 [31%], mixed bacteria species in 25 [11%] and Candida spp. in 19 [9%] of all 223 infection episodes. Five species were isolated most frequently: Staphylococcus aureus [40], Acinetobacter spp. [28] Pseudomonas spp. [22], Enterobacter spp. [20] and Klebsiella spp. [17]. Resistance to most commonly available antibiotics was moderate to very high among Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates. Almost all Gram-negative bacteria were sensitive to imipenem and ciprofloxacin