RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Blood stream infections are major cause of morbidity and mortality in children in developing countries. The emerging of causative agents and resistance to various antimicrobial agents are increased from time to time. The main aim of this study was to determine the bacterial agents and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns among children suspected of having septicemia. METHODS: A cross sectional study involved about 201 pediatric patients (≤ 12 years) was conducted from October 2011 to February 2012 at pediatric units of TikurAnbessa Specialized Hospital and Yekatit 12 Hospital. Standard procedure was followed for blood sample collection, isolate identifications and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. RESULTS: Among 201 study subjects 110 (54.7%) were males. Majority 147 (73.1%) of them were neonates (≤ 28 days). The mean length of hospital stay before sampling was 4.29 days. Out of the 201 tested blood samples, blood cultures were positive in 56 (27.9%).Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria constituted 29(51.8%) and 26(46.4%), respectively. The most frequent pathogen found was Staphylococcus aureus 13 (23.2%), followed by Serratia marcescens 12(21.4%), CoNS 11(19.6%), klebsiella spp 9(16%) and Salmonella spp 3(5.4%). Majority of bacterial isolates showed high resistance to Ampicillin, Penicillin, Co-trimoxazole, Gentamicin and Tetracycline which commonly used in the study area. CONCLUSION: Majority of the isolates were multidrug resistant. These higher percentages of multi-drug resistant emerged isolates urge us to take infection prevention measures and to conduct other large studies for appropriate empiric antibiotic choice.