Abstract

INCIDENCE, BACTERIOLOGICAL PROFILE AND ANTIBIOTIC SENSITIVITY PATTERN OF URINARY TRACT INFECTION IN INFANTS: A REPORT FROM TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Pritikumari Patel, Nirmaljit Kaur*, Shalini Malhotra, I. Singh, S. Mandal and Nandini Duggal

ABSTRACT

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial infection. The incidence is between 10.7% and 15.4% among febrile infants. It is difficult to diagnose UTI in infants because lack of ability at this age to communicate regarding the clinical symptoms leading to delay in diagnosis and initiation of treatment which may progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the later years of life. Thus, prompt diagnosis and treatment is important to prevent long-term complication. The present study was done to find out the present scenario of UTI in infants and to identify the bacterial pathogens involved and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. Material & methods: The present study was an observational study undertaken in the Dept. of Microbiology, ABVIMS & Dr. RML hospital, New Delhi, India. The specimens were processed as per the standard protocol for urine culture. Specimens showing pure growth of an organism with a colony count of >105 CFU/ml were further processed by biochemicals and VITEK 2 compact automated identification system followed by antibiotic sensitivity. Results & discussion: Out of these, 320 samples were from children < 1 year of age 28 (8.75%) cases were diagnosed to have UTI. Most common organism isolated was Escherichia coli followed by Enterococcus spp. Most of the organism showed maximum susceptibility to Piperacillin tazobactam combination followed by ceftazidime, Gentamicin and Amikacin. Conclusion: Urinary tract infection is one of the common etiological causes of fever in infants, which presents with a wide variety of symptoms. In infants presenting with fever, female sex, severe malnutrition are significant risk factors for UTI. Hence infants presenting with these risk factors should be screened for UTI to facilitate early diagnosis and prompt treatment and reduce morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: UTI, infants, Bacteriological profile, Antibiotic sensitivity.