Incidence of other bacterial pathogens among the patients suspected with pulmonary tuberculosis attending Hasiya Bayero Paediatric hospital Kano, Nigeria

Tuberculosis co-infection with other bacterial pathogens is one of the major health problems especially in tuberculosis endemic region. Bacterial pathogens that localized in the lower respiratory tract are could sometimes preclude Mycobacterium tuberculosis or manifest as pulmonary symptoms that could mislead clinicians. Therefore this study was planned to examine suspected TB patients in Kano, Nigeria for other pathogenic bacteria with view to establishing frequency of occurrence towards facilitating better outcome of therapeutic cover. A total of 170 non duplicated sputum samples were collected from patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis. All the samples were processed according to standard bacteriological procedures including macroscopic examination, culture and microscopic examination using both Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) staining and Gram staining methods. Isolated organisms were subjected to appropriate biochemical testes. High incidences were observed among age group 10 – 29 and 30 – 49 years with male and urban people been the predominant patients. Overall 20.6% of samples were AFB positive indicated TB co-infection while 62.4% were positive for other bacterial growth. Nalidixic acid and Nitrofurantoin found to have highest resistant among Gram negative organisms isolated following by Levofloxacin, Ceftriaxone and Ceftazidime while the Ofloxacin and Ciprofloxacin have the least resistant. Among Gram positive Ceftazidime shown to has the highest resistant and Ofloxacin found to has the least resistant. The study indicated predominance of Streptococcus pneumoniae (47.2%) and Staphylococcus species (32.1%) with an evidence of 15.1% and 2.8% co-infection with TB respectively. x Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis , Co-infection, Bacterial pathogens, pulmonary tuberculosis.