We aimed to determine the bacterial profile and describe the drug susceptibility pattern of neonatal sepsis in patients seen at Gondar University Hospital neonatal unit, Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia. A cross sectional study was conducted involving patients with clinical signs of sepsis who were admitted to Gondar University Hospital neonatal unit between July 2011 and June 2012. Venous blood sample was collected aseptically and inoculated in to Trypton soya blood culture medium for 2-14 days aerobically, checking for growth of bacteria every 3 days. Bacterial isolates were identified using standard procedures and antibacterial susceptibility test was done following agar disc diffusion method. A total of 181 neonates (99 male and 82 female) were included in the study. Out of this, 58 showed positive blood culture for bacteria with infection rate of 32.1%. The most common bacterial isolate was Staphylococcus aureus (29.3%) followed by Klebsiella ozaenae (17.2%), Escherichia coli (10.3%), non lactose fermenter gram negatives (10.3%), K. pneumoniae (8.6%) and coagulase negative staphylococci (6.8%). S. aureus showed high level of drug resistance for tetracycline (16, 94.1%), ampicilln (14, 82.4%), amoxicillin (14, 82.4%), chloramphenicol (4, 82.4%), trimetoprim sulphametoxazole (14, 82.4%) and ceftrioxone (13, 76.4%). Among the total isolates of S. aureus, 41.2% of them were found to be methicillin resistant (MRSA). K. ozaenae showed extremely high level of resistance against amoxicillin (10, 100%), chloramphenicole (10, 100%), ampicillin (9, 90%) and tetracycline (7, 70%). Multiple drug resistance was observed in 85.7% of gram positive and 92.1% of gram negative isolates. There is exceedingly high rate of resistance of bacterial isolates to different antibiotics commonly prescribed. Bacterial profile suggesting the best choice of antibiotics are important for physicians when treatment of the septic neonates has to be initiated before the result of the blood culture is known.
