Abstract
Urinary tract infection remains the most common infection widespread worldwide in both community and hospital settings. Rapidly increasing antibiotic resistance of uropathogens is resulting in limited treatment options. Thus, understanding the current uropathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibilities is essential for effective urinary tract infection treatment. The purpose of this study was to isolate, characterize, and determine the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of bacterial pathogens associated with urinary tract infection at Pawe General Hospital in Northwest Ethiopia. A hospital-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from January to April, 2020, at Pawe General Hospital. Midstream urine specimens were collected from 141 individuals with suspected urinary tract infection for bacteriological identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Among the 141 study participants, twenty-nine (20.6%) showed significant bacteriuria. Escherichia coli (42.6%) had the highest proportion of isolated uropathogen followed by Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas spp. each (10.7%); Proteus spp. (9.3%); coagulase negative staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterobacter spp. each (6.7%); Citrobacter spp. (4%); and Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus spp. each (1.3%). Outpatient isolates showed a resistance of 64% and 78.6% to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and tetracycline, respectively. Inpatients showed 63.9% and 87.2% of resistance to cephalexin and tetracycline. It was also observed that all the isolates have a multiple antimicrobial resistance index greater than 0.20 except Citrobacter spp. (0.142) in inpatients. Even though in this locality, most isolates were sensitive to ceftriaxone, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, and norfloxacin, they are considered appropriate antimicrobials for empirical treatment of urinary tract bacterial infections. Periodic monitoring of etiology and drug susceptibility is highly recommended, along with health education on the transmission and causes of urinary tract infection.