Suzanne Sonya Cherian, John Jacob, Rakesh PS, Immanuel R
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance to uropathogens is a growing problem and a cause of major concern in many countries including India. The current study was done with the objective to study the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of pathogens causing Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) in a secondary care hospital in Tamilnadu.
Methodology: This was a retrospective study of antimicrobial susceptibility data for urine samples collected at a 300 bedded secondary care rural hospital in Dindigul district, Tamilnadu, southern India. Results of urine culture of patients attending the Outpatient and inpatient departments of the hospital over a period of six months from Feb 2011were collected. The data collected from the laboratory were entered into the WHONET 5.6 program and frequencies and percentages were calculated.
Results: Of the 1414 samples processed for culture during the study period, 384 (27.15%) samples showed significant growth of micro organisms. E.coli (80.9%), Klebsiella spp. (9.6%) and Enterobacter spp. (4.9%) were the three most common pathogens isolated. Seventy two percent of all E.coli isolates were resistant to sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim, 70.7% to ciprofloxacin and 30.8% to nitrofurantoin. E.coli showed a resistance of less than 25% to Imepenem, amikacin and chloramphenicol.
Conclusion: The antibiotic resistance pattern of common organisms causing UTIs to commonly used antibiotics, in the current hospital based setting in alarming. Guidelines based on local susceptibility patterns of uropathogens need to be formulated.
Key words: Antibiotic susceptibility, Drug resistance, Escherichia coli, Urinary tract infections.