Incidence of Other Bacterial Pathogens among Patients suspected with Pulmonary Tuberculosis attending Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kano

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) has been a global human disease for decades, which has been causing death worldwide. It occurs due to an infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) at the lungs alveolar surfaces. It is an airborne bacterial infectious disease which can be transmissible from one person to another. This study was aimed at determining other bacterial pathogens among patients suspected with pulmonary tuberculosis, attending Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kano. This study was cross-sectionally designed such that some pathogenic bacteria were isolated from suspected TB patients (positive or negative), to check for any possible co-infection. 85 sputum samples were collected from the TB suspected patients and TB-LAMP was conducted to check for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The sputum samples collected were then cultured on Chocolate and MacConkey agar and incubated at 37^oC for 18-24hrs and pure colonies were confirmed using Grams staining and biochemical reaction. The data obtained were presented in frequencies and percentages and were analyzed statistically. Based on age group, the highest incidence was found among the age group of ≥ 40 with 38.46%, followed by 10–19 with 27.02%, the incidence was least in age group of 20–29 and 30–39 with 17.95% both. According to gender, 23 males and 16 females were found with other bacterial pathogens, where the highest incidence was found in males (23/39 (58.97%)) and was least in females (16/39 (41.02%)), while 28 males and 18 females were found with no bacterial pathogen. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas spp. and Proteus spp. were the bacterial pathogens isolated and identified from the samples collected, with Streptococcus pneumoniae being the predominant pathogen (21.2%) and Staphylococcus aureus being the least prevalent (1.2%). Patients who were positive to TB were found with the highest incidence of other bacterial pathogens (27 (69%)) than the TB negative patients (12 (31%)). Both Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial pathogens have co-infected the suspected TB patients attending the targeted hospital of study. It is recommended that, patients showing symptoms of Tuberculosis should always be checked for a possible bacterial infection, not only tubercular infections, as that may enhance the diagnosis.