Microbial examination outcome of sputum at tertiary hospital in Baghdad-Iraq

The lungs are a common site for infection by prevalent pathogens which be faced in worldwide, include bacteria, atypical, viruses, fungi and other infectious agents. Ten million persons became infected with TB and 1.6 million died of this disease. This study was designed to explore the rate of AFB, the most common bacteria and fungi in the sputum specimen obtained from patients with respiratory tract infection. Positive sputum culture was 1155 (5.6%).The prevalence of Gram negative 752 (80.1%) was higher than Gram positive 187 (19.91%). The most common Gram-negative bacteria were: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.91%), Moraxella catarrhalis (17.14%), then Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli (15.86%), (13.31%) respectively. Streptococcus pneumoniae (15.0%) is at the top of Gram-positive bacteria. A significant greater proportion of TB in West Baghdad than in the East Baghdad. Bacterial isolates exhibited a high frequency of resistance to most of common antibiotics such as: Ticaricillin (TI), Amoxacillin (AMX), Rocephin (CTR), Gentamycin (GEN). Gram negative bacteria population was the most common organisms for RTI then TB and fungi, higher prevalence of microbial infection in men than women and increased of antibiotic resistance especially β-lactam antibiotics.