Effects of Antibiotic Self-Medication on the Efficacy of Four Antibiotics Commonly used in Ghana on Clinically Isolated Micro Organisms

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is associated with antibiotic abuse through self medication. Antibiotic resistance is established through antimicrobic susceptibility testing of isolated pathogens to the antibiotic of interest. Between June and October 2008, 150 urine samples collected from patients referred to a Clinical Laboratory in Accra Ghana for clinical laboratory tests were processed. Positive and negative cultures were 60% and 40% respectively of all samples. 34.7% of patients had self medicated and 65.3% had not. 54.24% of the negative cultures were from the self medicated subjects and 45.76% from non-self medicated subjects. 78.02% of positive cultures were from non-self medicating subjects while 21.98% were from self medicated subjects. E. coli, S. aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia were isolated according to standard methods and their sensitivities to Augmentin, Gentamycin, Imipenem and Amoxicillin antibiotics determined by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. K. pneumoniae was totally resistant to Gentamycin, Augmentin and Amoxicillin; E. coli was totally resistant to Amoxicillin and S. aureus totally sensitive to Imipenem. Generally, more antibiotic self-medicating individuals had resistant pathogens than non selfmedicating individuals. The results confirm that antibiotic self medication prior to clinically prescribed antibiotic treatment has a significant influence on the response of bacteria to the clinically administered antibiotics.