Invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease in southern India: A 5-year experience from a tertiary care hospital

Background/aim: The current study was carried out to describe the clinical presentation, antimicrobial susceptibility pattern, and outcome of invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease (iNTS) in a tertiary care center. Materials and methods: A 5-year hospital-based retrospective study was carried out on blood culture-confirmed cases of iNTS. Medical records of patients were reviewed to obtain information on demography, clinical manifestations, comorbidities, complications, immune status, treatment, and clinical outcome. Results: A total of 40 blood culture-confirmed cases of iNTS were diagnosed during the study period. Among these 40 isolates, 9 (22.5%) were identified as Salmonella Typhimurium. Fever (67.5%) with gastrointestinal disturbance (40%) was the most common clinical presentation. The majority of the patients were immunosuppressed (75%). All isolates were susceptible to all the antimicrobials tested. Ceftriaxone (92.5%) was the most common antimicrobial used in our setting. A total of 15% patients died during the hospital stay. Conclusion: We conclude that iNTS disease is a severe infection prevailing in India with a high mortality rate. Anemia and diabetes were the two most common comorbidities. Though all NTS organisms isolated were sensitive to all the antimicrobials tested, we suggest that continued surveillance is necessary to monitor the presence of multidrug-resistant strains.