Coagulase negative staphylococcus: a predominant cause of neonatal Bacteremia in a tertiary care hospital in kolkata, West Bengal

Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) are emerging as a predominant cause of neonatal septicemia in health care facilities. Blood stream infection due to CoNS are often overlooked as central line colonization or contamination. An attempt was made to find out the prevalence of CoNS bacteremia with their antibiogram in neonatal blood culture samples from NICU of a tertiary care hospital. The study includes 1490 blood culture samples taken from sick neonates over a period of 21 months. Automated culture was done using BACT /ALERT and VITEK -2 machines. Results show that a total of 213(14.3%) samples were positive for gram positive cocci and 154 (10.3%) samples were positive for Gram negative bacilli. Among the gram positive cocci 176(11.8%) were CoNS while only 37(2.4%) was S.aureus. Antimicrobial susceptibility revealed that gram positive cocci were highly sensitive to Linezolid, Daptomycin and Vancomycin but were mostly resistant to Benzyl penicillin, Ciprofloxacin, Levofloxacin. Methicillin resistance was seen in 73% Staphylococcus aureus isolates whereas CoNS showed variable resistance. It is imperative to understand the pathogenic potential of CoNS and carry out their antibiogram for proper management of neonatal sepsis rather than mere discarding them as contaminants, otherwise neonatal morbidity will continue to increase.