The Prevalence of Enterobacteriaceae among Outpatients with Urinary Tract Infections in Zakho City, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

The family Enterobacteriaceae is the leading cause of both hospital- and community-acquired urinary tract infections. The purpose of this study was to estimate the rate of infection with Enterobacteriaceae among outpatients suffering from UTIs at two major hospitals in Zakho city. This study was conducted over the period of 5 months from the 1st of September 2021 till the end of January 2022, during this period a total of 454 midstream urine samples were collected from outpatients with UTIs of both genders and different ages (? one year to > 50 years). The isolated enterobacterial species were identified according to their biochemical characteristics using conventional standard methods. The result showed that 52.64% (239/454) of the tested urine samples were infected with species of Enterobacteriaceae. The most commonly detected species with their rates of infections were: Escherichia coli (69.46 %) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (27.20 %). In females, the overall rate of infection was higher over all ages than in males (85.36% vs 14.64%) with the highest rate being among the ages ?1-10 and >10-20 years, which was 91.67%. Married patients of both genders showed a slightly higher rate than single ones (53.62% vs 51.12%), and married women showed a higher rate than single ones (86.49% vs 83.52%). Urban residents had a higher infection rate than those living in camps and rural areas (53.85%, 48.48%, and 45.45%), respectively. This study concluded that members of Enterobacteriaceae are the major causative agents of UTIs, with E. coli being the predominant isolated bacterial species. The rate of infection was higher in females, married patients and urban residents.