Epidemiology of Otitis Media in Children Attending Paediatric out-patient Department of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria.

A prospective study of the incidence, predisposing factors, aetiological agents and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern and complications were carried out in 165 consecutive children seen in the Paediatric Out-Patient Department of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria. The age range of the patient was 10 days to 10 years with mean age of 2.5+ 0.2 years. The peak incidence was seen in Infancy. There were 90 males and 75 females with a male to female ratio of 1:0.8. The incidence of otitis media in this study was 1.53%. Ninety one (55.2%) cases were acute otitis media. A total of 350 isolates were recovered from 225 affected ears. Staphylococcus aureus 46.5% was predominant in acute otitis media while pseudomonas aeruginosa 30% was predominant in chronic otitis media. The distribution of various organisms 185(52.9%) gram – positive 148(41.70%) gram-negative and anaerobes 12(3.4%), Mycobacterium tuberculosis 3(0.9%), and fungi 2(0.6%). Staphylococcus aureus was found to be 100% sensitive to cloxacillin, erythromycin (94%), gentamycin (90%) and amoxicillin (90%) while the gram negative organisms were 100% sensitive to gentamycin. The major complications encountered were mastoid abscess (6.1%), hearing loss (4.8%), meatal stenosis (2.4%) and otogenic tetanus (1.8%). Other complications were facial nerve palsy and osteomyelitis (1.2%) each. It is therefore suggested that there should be prompt treatment of ear discharges. There should be control aimed at interrupting the transmission of infection agents especially the control programme against acute respiratory tract infections.Key words: Epidemiology, Otitis Media, Zari