Abstract

Neha Ghosh, A. K. Goel*, Harivadan Lukka, P. Bhattacharya and D. V. Kamboj

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most important clinically significant and opportunistic pathogens, often causing nosocomial infections. Pseudomonas has been implicated to cause folliculitis and other papular or vesicular lesions in the skin of otherwise healthy individuals besides pyoderma gangrenosum in neutropenic patients. In this study, Pseudomonas species were isolated from patients with skin infections from a tribal area in South India. The isolates were confirmed as P. aeruginosa by biochemical tests and by a duplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting two loci from 16S rRNA. The isolates were examined for antibiotic susceptibility, production of exotoxin A, and fingerprinting pattern by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) PCR. The isolates were found non-clonal in origin and all the isolates produced exotoxin A, a virulence trait of P. aeruginosa. All the isolates exhibited resistance towards several antibiotics including broad spectrum antibiotics, β-lactams, cephalosporin, macrolides, rifampicin and sulfonamides. However, the isolates were susceptible towards some commonly used antibiotics belonging to quinolones  and aminoglycosides. A continuous monitoring of the Pseudomonas isolates for the drug resistance is important as it can help our clinicians in management of skin infections caused by Pseudomonas.