An Assessment of the Efficacy of Ofloxacin Brands on Clinical Isolates of Streptococcus Pneumoniae and Staphylococcus Aureus

It is a common practice for clinicians to administer antimicrobial agents to patients suffering from bacterial infections without recourse to laboratory diagnosis which provides information on the antibiogram of the etiologic agents. This may result to the use of less efficacious drugs that might lead to long time hospitalization, death of patients and/or opportunity for bacterial species to develop resistant to some of these antimicrobial agents. This is the reason why, this study was carried out to determine the efficacy of five (5) brands of Ofloxacin; a typical floroquinolone antibiotic available in most pharmaceutical shops in Nigeria. Clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were exposed to twofold serial dilution of the antibiotic to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Result shows that the percentage strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae inhibited by the five brands of Ofloxacin investigated were 72, 74, 41, 68 and 76% respectively. Result also shows that the percentage strains of Staphylococcus aureus inhibited by the antimicrobial agent were 81, 85, 52, 79 and 85% respectively. Analysis of the result shows that the efficacy rate of Ofloxacin against Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were 72 and 81% respectively. The result has shown that patients and health care providers can rely on this antimicrobial agent in the treatment of ailments associated with Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus in this locality provided the efficacy of the brand to be used is tested.