Occurrence and antimicrobial resistance patterns of bacterial and fungal pathogens from patients with urinary tract infections in Ojo, Lagos Nigeria

Abstract

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) is a common bacterial and fungal infection affecting millions of people globally. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of bacteria and fungi from patients with UTI. Urine samples were collected aseptically from patients with symptoms of UTI in sterile universal containers from five hospitals in a period of three months. A total of 200 urine samples from 75 males and 125 females were analyzed and subjected to culture, biochemical identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing using the Kirby-Bauer technique. Fungal isolates were identified based on cultural characteristics, lactophenol cotton blue stain, chlamydospore formation, and colony colour on CHROM agar Candida medium. Most samples were positive for one microorganism each and a few had two isolates, thus giving a frequency of 210 microbial isolates. The most commonly isolated bacteria were Escherichia coli, 71(34%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus, 63(30%), Enterobacter spp., 32(15.2%), Klebsiella spp., 17(8.1%), Proteus mirabillis, 15(7.1%) and Candida albicans 12(5.7%), being the only fungus isolated. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing showed that Escherichia coli showed 57.7% susceptibility to streptomycin. Klebsiella spp. were 70.5% susceptible to septrin, but with susceptibility as low as 47.1% to chloramphenicol. Enterobacter spp. showed 71.9% susceptibility to septrin, 68.8% to gentamycin, 59.4% to streptomycin and chloramphenicol, 53.1%. Proteus spp showed 53.5%, and 66.7% to pefloxacin, septrin and streptomycin respectively. Staphylococcus aureus showed susceptibility of 56(88.9%), 55(87.3%), and 47 (74.6%) to gentamicin, ciprofloxacin. and pefloxacin respectively. Candida albicans was highly susceptible to nystatin, fluconazole and miconazole by 7(58.3%) but was highly resistant to ketoconazole, 41.7%. The findings of this study provide valuable information on the distribution of bacterial and fungal agents that are common etiology of UTIs, and likely antimicrobial drugs for the treatment of UTIs.