DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2015.v03i07.011

Pages: 627-632

Keratitis (corneal ulcer) leads to ocular morbidity and blindness worldwide and is second most common cause next to cataract. Etiological agents of microbial keratitis are bacteria, fungi, viruses and acanthamoeba usually after trauma and varies significantly from country to country, and even from region to region. Specific treatment requires quick and accurate identification of the causative micro-organism. The aim of the present study is to isolate & identify the bacterial and fungal etiological agents of corneal ulcer and to study the risk factors & epidemiological characteristics. Corneal scrapings from one hundred clinically diagnosed corneal ulcer cases with or without hypopyon attending Regional eye hospital, Visakhapatnam from September 2011 to February2013 were processed by standard methods of microscopy, bacterial & fungal culture. The clinical and epidemiological details of the patients were noted andanalysed. Economically active age group of 21 – 50 years contributed to 52% of cases. Patients from rural background constitute 62%and 42% attended the hospital within 2 – 3 weeks of their illness. 38% incidence was during harvest season of January to March. Culture positivity was 73% which include 21% bacterial, 49% fungal and 3% mixed growth. Of the 24 bacterial isolates Pseudomonas aeruginosa (29.17%) was predominant followed by Staphylococcus aureus (25%). Of the 52 fungal isolates 19 were Fusarium sps. followed by 17 Aspergillus sps. The study of microbial etiology and regional distribution of corneal ulcer would help in the accurate management of keratitis cases.