CHINET 2007 surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa in China

Objective To investigate the antimicrobial resistance of P. aeruginosa in China during 2007.Methods Clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa from 12 teaching hospitals in China were collected and antimicrobial susceptibility were tested by K-B method. The data were analyzed by WHONET 5.4 software.Results Of 3 988 clinical P. aeruginosa isolates, 94.3% were from the hospitalized patients, 76.2% from respiratory tract. The P. aeruginosa isolates showed the lowest resistance rate (18.7%) to amikacin. The resistance rates to other antimicrobial agents were higher than 20%. The resistance rates of the P. aeruginosa strains from Shanghai Huashan Hospital were higher than 30% to most antibiotics except cefoperazone-sulbactam. For the strains from Shanghai Pediatric Hospital, the resistance rates to each of the antimicrobial agents were lower than 10%. The pan-resistant P. aeruginosa strains (only sensitive to colistin) accounted for 3.2%. Conclusions The antimicrobial resistance of P. aeruginosa is still a serious problem in China. The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern varied in different hospitals. The surveillance of antimicrobial resistance is very important for guiding rational antimicrobial therapy.