Microbial Agents of the Conjunctiva Infection in Patients Hospitalized in Tabriz Pediatric Hospital

The conjunctiva is a mucus membrane that covers the internal surface of the eyelids and the external surface of the globe. Conjunctivitis comprises a variable group of infectious and non-infectious diseases. Bacterial conjunctivitis is a common type of ocular infections. The aim of this study was to determine the bacterial agents in conjunctivitis. This descriptive study was done on 148 patients with conjunctivitis who were hospitalized in pediatric hospital of Tabriz from March 2001 to February 2002 and had suppurative discharge. Suppurative discharge of the conjunctiva was sampled and cultured on suitable media. Antibiogram of the isolated strains was done using the disk diffusion method. The data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics. The isolated organisms were in the following frequency: Pseudomonas aeroginosa (40), Staphylococcus aureus(26), Klebsiella pneumonia(20), coagulase negative Staphylococci spp(18), Enterobacter spp(12), E.coli(10), Seratia marcescens(6), Acintobacter spp(4), Beta-hemolytic streptococcus group A(4). These bacteria had varied degrees of resistance to ciprofloxacin (37%), Chloramphenicle (52%), Gentamycin (70%) and Co-trimoxazol (71%). In different studies the prevalence of conjuctivitis infection is reported to be 20-40% but we found 94.5%. Regarding the importance of bacterial conjuctivitis infection in hospital and the possibility of the transmission of resistant infection to the society, some measures shoud be taken to decrease these infections.