Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance patterns of microbes isolated from individuals attending private diagnostic centre in Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana

The evidence of rising numbers of multidrug-resistant organisms requires the implementation of effective stewardship programs. However, this should be informed by evidence-based knowledge of local antimicrobial resistance patterns. The current study aims to establish the prevalence of common pathogenic microbes including their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and distribution in the Cape Coast Metropolis. This was a retrospective study where microbial culture and antimicrobial susceptibility records for 331 patients were reviewed from January to December 2019, at a private health centre. All data were analysed using Excel (Microsoft Office, USA), SPSS and GraphPad Prism 8 software programs. Among the samples tested, 125 (37.76%) were positive for microbes with high vaginal swab (HVS) samples recording the highest number of pathogens (44%), followed by urine (40%) and both pleural and semen samples having the least (0.3% each). Again, gram-negative isolates were more prevalent than the gram-positive isolates. The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance was very significant with isolates resistant to more than one antibiotic (P