The Isolation and Characterization of Proteus mirabilis from Different Clinical Samples

Abstract

A total of one hundred five samples were collected from hospitals of Baghdad city during the period from 10/12/2008 to 15/3/2009. These clinical samples included: urine (50) wound swabs (25), sputum (20), and ear swabs (10). These samples were collected from the Baghdad hospital/ Teaching Laboratories, and Al-Yarmook Hospital/ Teaching Laboratories. Twenty six isolates of Proteus mirabilis were characterized according to the morphology and microscopic characteristics, along with the biochemical and confirmatory APi 20 E tests. These isolates were obtained from: urine (19), wound swabs (6), ear swabs (2), and sputum (1). The twenty selected isolates were tested for resistance against ten antibiotics and only urine samples were tested for nalidixic acid and nitrofurantoin resistance. It was shown that there were differences in the antibiotic resistance of isolates. High resistance to nitrofurantoin and ampicillin were found among isolates as (100%) and (75%) respectively while the resistance of Proteus isolates to trimethoprin /sulphamethazol, were (65%). This study also showed that resistance of isolates to gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, pipracillin, cefotaxime, nalidixic acid azteronam, imipenem and amikacin were (50, 40, 40, 40, 35,27, 20,15, 5)% respectively.