Prevalence and Antibiogram Profile of Uropathogens in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital in Lahore: A 5-Year Study

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are most common in people after respiratory tract infections. It involves both sexes and different age groups. Antibiotic surveillance programs are necessary for achieving good treatment outcomes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of bacterial pathogens causing UTIs in population as well as to check their antibiotic resistance patterns. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study carried out at Arif Memorial Teaching Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, from September 2016 till December 2021. All the mid-stream urine samples were collected and cultured using standard techniques. The Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion test was performed to check the antibiotic sensitivity profile of isolated bacteria on Mueller-Hinton agar. Results: From the total 2967 urine samples collected in 5-year and 4-month periods, 264 were positive cases showing bacterial growth. The prevalence of UTI was 8.9%. It was more common in females (180) as compared to males (84). Among the positive cases, Gram-negative organisms (215) occurred more frequently than Gram-positive organisms (49). Among the Gram-negative organisms, Escherichia coli (144) was the most common than other Gram-negative bacteria such as Klebsiella (26), Proteus (30), and Pseudomonas (15). Among the Gram-positive bacteria, coagulase-negative staphylococci (31) were more in number than Staphylococcus aureus (18). Gram-negative bacteria were more sensitive to imipenem, meropenem, nitrofurantoin, and amikacin showing 90%, 90%, 81%, and 65.5% sensitivity, respectively. Gram-positive bacteria were more sensitive to imipenem, vancomycin, and amikacin showing 100%, 72.5%, and 58.3% sensitivity, respectively. Conclusion: There is an increased prevalence of UTIs in our community, and Gram-negative bacteria were more commonly involved. The antibiotic resistance, especially multidrug resistance, is quite high for commonly used antibiotics. It is therefore important to early detect and closely monitor the resistant bacteria in all medical microbiology laboratories in order to minimize the increasing trend of antibiotic resistance.