The study is aimed at determining the effects of gender and seasonal variations on the prevalence of Otitis Media among children of five years & younger as well as susceptibility profile of the bacterial agents in Owerri, Imo State Nigeria. Ear discharge from 156 (80 males and 76 female) patients with signs and symptoms of Otitis Media were processed to recover bacterial agents. Susceptibility test was performed on all bacterial Isolates. Pseudomonas aeruginosa (40.1%) was the predominant bacterial isolate causing otitis media followed by Staphylococcus aureus (29.6%), Escherichia coli (16.5%), Streptococcus pneumonia (5.3%), Serratia marcescens (2.0%), proteus mirabilis (3.3%) and klebsiella spp (0.6%).137 had a single organism isolated from the middle ear culture while fifteen (9.9%) patients had mixed organisms isolated. Gender and seasonal variations did not affect the overall prevalence of Otitis Media (P>0.05).All bacterial Isolates showed fairly susceptible to the antibacterial agent used. An overall prevalence of 87.8% of bacteriologically proven otitis media was observed in this study. Following the high level resistance observed, rational use of antibacterial agents is advocated.
