الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 226 |  |  |
| | | from | 226 | | |
Abstract
The present study aims to evaluate the neonatal sepsis at Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in three referral Mansoura hospitals, Egypt, over a period of 18 months from March 2011 to August 2012. A total of 344 neonates were diagnosed as suspected sepsis with an incidence of 45.9%. Sepsis was confirmed by positive blood culture in 40.7% of them. Regarding to the isolated bacteria, CoNS were the predominant isolates, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae. Among CoNS, S. epidermidis was the most common species; followed by S. haemolyticus. By determination of the antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolates, the bacterial isolates had low sensitivity to the commonly used first- and second-line empiric antibiotics. Oxacillin resistance was detected phenotypically (by disc diffusion method) and genotypically (through detection of mecA gene) in staphylococcal isolates. mecA-positive staphylococcal isolates were characterized through (SCCmec) typing. SCCmec types V, II and III (alone and combined) were the most prevalent among CoNS isolates, types II and III were the most prevalent among S. epidermidis strains and type V among S. haemolyticus strains. More than one SCCmec type can be present in the same strain. In addition, the staphylococcal isolates were investigated for their possession of some of the virulence factors contributing to the pathogenesis of infection including biofilm forming properties of strains, hemolysin production and the prevalence of toxin producing genes (psmβ genes).