Abstract
From a variety of clinical specimens from out-and in-patients of the Black Lion Teching Hospital in Addis Ababa, 820 strains of Staphylococcus aureus were isolated. All isolates were tested for their drug sensitivity with 11 drugs using the Kirby-Bauer standardized agar disk diffusion technique. The strains were isolated from pus (55%), vaginal and urethral swabs (17%), blood (12%), urine (11%), sputum (4%) and from other miscellaneous specimens (1%). About 44% of the strains were from surgical in-patients and 27% from out-patients. Over 85% of the strains were sensitive to cephalothin, kanamycin, gentamicin, lincomycin and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole. Sensitivities to penicillin, sulphadiazine and tetracyline were particularly low (below 20%). About 96% were resistant to at least one drug; 75% were resistant to 3 or more drugs. The antibiograms detected were greatly varied: 55 types among inpatient strains and over 100 among out-patient strains.