Profile of Bacterial Conjunctivitis in Sudan

Bacterial conjunctivitis has worldwide distribution, affecting persons of all ages, races, social strataand both genders. The present study aimed to isolate and identify the common bacteria causing conjunctivitis and their antibiotic susceptibility in Khartoum state, Sudan. Conjunctival swabs were collected from 200 patients attended to Khartoum Eye Hospital and allwaldin Eye Hospital. The swabs were directly inoculated onto blood agar, MacConkey agar and chocolate agar then a smear was prepared from each swab. For C. trachomatis identification was based on Giemsa stain to the air dried smearand examined microscopically for inclusion bodies. All isolated organisms were tested for their in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility against various antibiotics using the Kirby-Baur disk diffusion method. The frequency positive samples were 156/200(78%). Among the 156 positive samples 59.6 %were females, 41.0% in age group (< 15 years).Gram positive bacteria were the predominant isolates (73.1%). The major organism isolated was S. aureus(41%) and the least organism isolated was Haemophilus sp(2.6%). The maximum antibiotic sensitivity of the isolates was against gentamycin (94.20%) followed by chloramphenicol and ceftazidime (78.8%) while the maximum resistance was against tetracycline (94.2%) followed by amikacin (73.1%). It was concluded that bacterial conjunctivitis was higher in Sudan especially in children and females and mostly caused by S. aureus. Gentamicin and Chloramphenicol are the appropriate antibiotics. Infection control measures should be properly implemented in eye hospitals.