The pattern of antimicrobial susceptibility among urinary tract bacterial pathogens and the associated resistance profile

Purpose: The global trend in disease burden due to bacterial infections of urinary tract is on the rise, thus necessitating continual surveillance.Methods: One hundred and sixty-seven (167) bacterial isolates of urinary tract infections collected between 2014 and 2020 were explored. Their identification (IDs) confirmation, antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) were determined using Vitek Compact 2 (BioMerieux, Marcy L’Etoile, France. Results were computed and analyzed using GraphPad Prism version 10.4.1 (627).Results: The pathogens were mainly Escherichia coli (52 %), Klebsiella pneumoniae (21.56 %) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10.77 %). Others include Proteus mirabilis (6 %), Enterobacter species (4.79 %), Providencia stuartii (2.39%) and Acinetobacter baumannii (2.39 %). Source of isolation was significantly (p < 0.0001) more from urine (82 %) than from catheter tip samples (18 %). Significantly more of the pathogens were multidrug-resistant (MDR; 59 %) than were susceptible strains (SS; 22.1 %) or extensively drug-resistant (XDR; 18.5%), with results varying among bacterial species. While E.coli strains were sensitive to three antimicrobials (imipenem, tigecycline and colistin), K. pneumoniae was highly resistant to the tested antibiotics including colistin (55.56 %), but with a reduction in resistance to ticarcillin (15 %), meropenem (19.44 %), gentamicin (22.22 %), and aztreonam (44.44 %).Conclusion: The findings of this study show that E. coli, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa continue to be troublesome UTI pathogens, progressing from MDR to XDR. Therefore, previously considered goldstandard antibiotics used in treating UTIs might remain the choice drugs for much longer as seen from the results of this study.