Surveillance of urine cultures and evaluation gram negative uropathogens;five year data from Erbil

Objective: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are most common infectious disease and a public health problem that imposes a large economic burden. Determining the distribution and resistance profiles of uropathogens in a region is important for planning empirical treatments, preventing antimicrobial drug resistance and establishing rational antibiotic use policies. The aim of this study is to gather surveillance data of urine cultures and determine the prevalence of uropathogens in urine samples of patients referred to outpatient clinics in Erbil region and to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility of the gram negative uropathogens. Methods: All urine cultures result of patients referred to Erbil hospitals in the last 5 years (2015-2020) are retrospectively examined in this study. Microorganisms are identified by standard bacterial methods and their susceptibilities are assessed by VITEK 2 (bioMérieux, Marcy l’Etoile, France) automated system. Results: The results of urine culture of 3380 suspected UTI cases are examined and out of 3097 positive cultures observed, a total of 1961 (63.3%) isolates are gram-negative and 1136 (36.7%) are gram-positive pathogens. Conclusion: The most common urinary pathogen determined in this study is Escherichia coli. The highest resistances of gram-negative urinary pathogens are against the ampicillin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and ceftriaxone. It is thought that the data obtained from this study will be useful in the planning of empirical treatment of urinary tract infections and in the development of rational antibiotic use policies.