College of Science, University of Kirkuk discussed a master dissertation on the types of bacteria associated with endocarditis and sepsis by the postgraduate student, Ms. Nourjan Abdul Hamid Namiq.

The dissertation aimed at isolating and diagnosing aerobic and anaerobic bacterial species that cause endocarditis and sepsis using microscopic, cultural and biochemical examinations and testing the API and DL-120 system and the Vitek 2 system.

The dissertation addressed the virulence factors of bacterial isolates such as enzyme production, biofilm formation, as well as studying their resistance to antibiotics through molecular tests to detect the genes responsible for antibiotic resistance and analyzing the phylogenetic tree to determine the genetic proximity and distance between the isolates under study and global isolates.

The dissertation highlighted that males were more susceptible to infection by 64.7% and the most affected age group was 61-70 years (27.72%) and Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent by 7.83%, followed by Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcus luteus, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The dissertation demonstrated revealed high resistance to antibiotics, as Staphylococcus aureus was resistant to all antibiotics, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed resistance to 13 out of 14 antibiotics genetic analysis also revealed the presence of resistance genes such as blaZ, mecA, norA in Staphylococcus aureus and mexR in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.