Microbiological profile and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern among patients with urinary tract infection in northern Tanzania

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common bacterial infection, it causes morbidity as well as financial burden. There is a role of empirical treatment of UTI while awaiting urine culture and sensitivity result. The type of empirical antibiotics given varies from place to place depending on susceptibility pattern of the particular area. According to Tanzania standard treatment guidelines and essential medicine list of 2013, cystitis in adult is treated by ciprofloxacin while pregnant women and children are treated by amoxicillin/clavulanate. In case of pyelonephritis, women of reproductive age who does not require referral are treated by ciprofloxacin while all other cases that fulfill criteria for referral are given single dose of ceftriaxone before referral. However, most studies have shown increasing resistance to commonly used antibiotics as a result of misuse and overuse.

The study aimed at describing the microbiological profile and susceptibility pattern among patients with UTI at KCMC.

Methods: This was a seven-month hospital based descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted from June 2016 to December 2016 by using structured data extraction sheet. Data analysis was performed using SPSS after cleaning and checking for error(s).

Results: A total of 270 samples that tested positive for UTI were analyzed. Majority 233(86.3%) of the sample were obtained from male subjects, age of study subjects ranged from 1-94 years with the median of 64 years. Majority 235 (87%) of the sample came from urology department with E. coli being most common cause of UTI (39.3%), followed by Klebsiella spp, 20%. E. coli demonstrated high sensitivity against amikacin, ceftazidime and Nitrofurantoin

Conclusion: The commonest cause of UTI in our set up is E. coli that showed high resistance against most commonly used antibiotics in our setting.