WHICH BACTERIA ARE CAUSING LRTI NOW? – A POST-COVID ERA STUDY AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN SOUTH GUJARAT.

We are presenting an original research article, depicting the specimen prole and prevalent bacterial prole of suspected Lower respiratory tract infection presenting in tertiary care hospital in south Gujarat. A retrospective study was conducted for sputum samples collected at Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education and Research, Surat, Gujarat during a span of 12 months, with a total of 729 samples collected. The specimen which showed maximum culture positivity was endotracheal tip. followed by sputum and pleural uid. Among the organisms isolated, gram negative organisms were prominently dominant, among which most common organism was Klebsiella pneumoniae followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter spp. and Escherichia coli. Among the gram-positive organisms, Staphylococcus aureus was most common followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae Aims Ÿ To isolate most common bacterial pathogen causing Lower respiratory tract infections in our region Ÿ To study the specimens and culture positivity with each specimen collected for suspected LRTI