Prevalence and phenotypic characterization of Enterococcus species isolated from clinical samples of pediatric patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, south west Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE: This study was done to determine the prevalence and phenotypic characterization of Enterococcus species isolated from clinical samples of pediatric patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia.

RESULTS: The overall prevalence of Enterococci species was 5.5% (22/403). Five (22.7%) of Enterococci species were vancomycin resistant. Haemolysin, gelatinase and biofilm production was seen among 45.5, 68.2 and 77.3% of isolates respectively. The overall rate of antibiotic resistance was 95.5% (21/22). High resistance was observed against norfloxacin (87.5%), and tetracycline (77.3%). Whereas, low resistance (36.5%) was observed against ciprofloxacin and eighteen (80.8%) of the isolates were multi-drug resistant.