Minimum Inhibitory Concentration

Hospitals are always acted as a source of infection to patients admitted to them. The terms hospital infection, hospital-acquired infection or nosocomial infection are applied to infections developing in hospitalized patients, not present or in incubation at the time of their admission. Such infection may become evident during their stay in hospital or, sometimes, only after their discharge. Approximately 5-10 % of patients admitted to acute care hospitals in developed countries, and more than 25% of such patients in developing countries, have been found to acquire infections which were not present or incubating at the time of admission. Such hospital-acquired, or nosocomial infections add to the morbidity, mortality, and costs that one might expect from the underlining illness alone. To fight these infections hospital personals employs many techniques and treatments to minimize the risk of certain infections. One of them is the use of antibiotics (like Meropenem) to prevent or control the spreading of such infections. Meropenem is an ultra-broad spectrum injectable antibiotic  used to treat a wide variety of infections. It is a beta lactum and belongs to the subgroup of carbapenem, similar to imipenem and ertapenem. Most hospital acquired pathogens show both sensitive and resistant results for Meropenem. So it is necessary to evaluate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Meropenem which would help the doctors to treat the patients infected by hospital acquired pathogens in a distinctive manner. So for the evaluation of MIC of Meropenem we are using the E-Strip Method which is useful for quantitative determination of susceptibility of bacteria to antibacterial agents. The system comprises of a predefined quantitative gradient which is used to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) in mcg/ml of different antimicrobial agents against microorganisms as tested on appropriate agar media, following overnight incubation. Thus by this experiment we will be able to provide satisfactory data to the hospital personals for the treatment of hospital acquired infections using Meropenem.

In most parts of Nigeria, traditional medicine practitioners and most rural dwellers use plant parts for treatment of ailments without scientific proof. This study was designed to investigate the antimicrobial activities of the aqueous and ethanol root extracts of Anogeissus leiocarpus against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 10145, Bacillus subtilis NCTC 8236, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Candida albicans 24433 and clinical isolates of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella spp and Candida albicans. The antimicrobial assays were carried out using the agar ditch diffusion and agar well diffusion methods. Statistical analysis was done using two way anova without replication. The ethanol extract inhibited all organisms and had lower minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) compared to the aqueous extract (P < 0.05). Staphylococcus aureus recorded the lowest MIC in ethanol and aqueous extract while Klebsiella spp had the highest MIC in ethanol extract. The aqueous extract had no activity against Candida albicans ATCC 24433. The use of this plant root alone and in combination with other plants by herb medicine practitioners for the treatment of infectious diseases can therefore be justified. However further work should carried out to isolate the active component that furnishes the understudied plant with its antimicrobial potential and as well determine the toxicity of the plant.