Activity Assessment of Antibiotics Used Against Different Bacterial Etiological Agents of UTI in Najaf, Iraq.

Background & objective: Antibiotic resistance in urinary tract infection (UTI) is increasing nowadays, therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the resistance patterns of many pathogens toward several antibiotics that are in common use in our hospitals.

Methods: Subculture and identification of pathogenic bacteria were performed on 1148 hospitals' bacterial primary cultures which were considered positive for UTI. An antibiotic sensitivity test was performed by using the disc diffusion method. The rates of resistance were statistically analyzed and correlated with the types of antibiotics and bacteria.

Results: It was found that 1148 out of 2087 urine samples were UTI positive, the majority of cases (76%) were from females (P<0.0001). Escherichia coli and Klebsiella were the most isolated Gram-negative bacteria, while Staphylococcus spp. was the most isolated Gram-positive pathogen. E. coli showed the highest resistance rate among all bacteria, while Streptococcus spp. was the most sensitive. The highest resistance was noticed to be against gentamicin and ampicillin, while the most effective drugs were imipenem and amikacin. There was a significant difference in resistance rates among the different bacterial categories (P<0.0001), while no significant difference was noticed in resistance rates among antibiotics categories (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Elevated rates of antibiotic resistance were noticed in this study in UTI-causing bacteria; therefore, it is highly important at least to every general hospital to investigate the antibiotic resistance rates occasionally to determine the proper antimicrobial treatment as well as re-evaluate antibiotics which were considered as empirical.