Antibiotic resistance in patients with primary immunodeficiency disorders versus immunocompetent patients

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility among bacterial isolates of patients with primary immunodeficiency disorders (PID) in comparison with immunocompetent patients. Methods: Patients’ antibiotic sensitivity profiles were extracted from their medical records. In order to compare the antibiotic sensitivity profiles of PID patients with immunocompetent patients, the results of antibiograms of patients who did not have a known or suspected immunodeficiency and were hospitalized during the same period were obtained and used as control subjects. Results: A total number of 257 isolates were obtained from 86 PID patients. Antimicrobial susceptibilities of several organisms isolated from PID patients were significantly lower compared to that of immunocompetent patients. Conclusion: Antibiotic resistance seems to be higher among PID patients compared to immunocompetent patients. This indicates a need for further investigations for the possible factors responsible for antibiotic resistance in PID patients.

Keywords:

• anti-bacterial agents
• drug resistance
• immune deficiency disease
• infection
• therapy

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• Antibiotics are extensively administrated for patients with primary immunodeficiency due to their predisposition to recurrent/and or severe infections.

• Currently, there is very little evidence available regarding the spectrum of antibiotic resistance in these patients which one may conclude to be higher than immunocompetent individuals.

• This study shows that antimicrobial resistance is higher in patients with primary immunodeficiency compared to immunocompetent patients.

• This increased resistance may be due to the routine administration of commonly used antibiotics, such as cotrimoxazole, for prophylactic purposes in these patients.