Prevalence of Plasmids Mediated Pseudomonas aeruginosa   Resistant Genes from Burn Wound Patients at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital Benin City, Nigeria

The studies of the prevalence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in burn wounds contamination in the ward were carried out. From a total of 166 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, 104 (62.7%) were obtained from freshly admitted burn wounds inmates where the isolates predominated in second-degree burns 45 (43.3%), followed by first-degree 38(36.5%) and third- degree 21(20.2%). From long term patients, a total of 62 (37.3%) were obtained where the isolates dominated in third degree burns 33(53.2%) and second- degree 29(46.8%). The organisms were further tested for their antibiotic sensitivity pattern. The quinolones, cefuroxime and gentamicin were the most effective on the isolates from newly admitted patients and to a lesser extent on isolates from long-term patients. Generally, there was a significant difference between (p<0.05) the antibiotic sensitivity pattern from freshly admitted patients and long hospitalized patients. The resistant plasmids to the various strains were very diverse and distributive. They were highly transferable with a frequency range of 2x10^-2to 6x10^-4. Some of the strains had plasmids bands that ranged from ≤0.55kbp to ≥1.14kbp. This indicates that plasmids allow the movement of genetic materials, including antimicrobial resistance genes between bacterial strains.