Characterization of Bacteriological Isolates from Patients and Environment Samples of Burn Ward: A Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital of India

Objective: Source of infection in a burn patient is from the patient’s flora, contaminated environmental surfaces and transmitted from health care workers. Insufficiently disinfected hospital environmental surface provides a niche for multidrug resistant bacteria. This study was carried out to assess the bacteriological profile of the pathogens from burn wounds and the surrounding environmental areas. Methods: During 6 months, wound swabs from burn patients were collected on admission (after 48 hours of admission), on day 5 and then weekly. Environmental samples were also collected from burn ward and studied for the bacteriological and anti-microgram profiles. Results: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii were the major bacterial isolates from the wound swabs and the environmental samples. ESBL was detected in 56.6% of our Enterobacteriaceae isolates. The environmental sites from which these bacterial isolates were found were nursing counter, sink, dressing trolley, medicine locker and patient’s bed. The percentage of MRSA decreased from 50 to 5% and there was an increased role of Enterococci species causing infections (13.63%). Conclusion: In this study, there appears that the colonizers of the environment may play a role in the causation of infection in burn patients. In burns ward, rigorous implementation of infection control program should be warranted, which includes and hygiene and use of personal protective equipment, environmental disinfection, cohort nursing care and antibiotics stewardship programme.