Bacteriological Profile and Drug-Resistance in Urinary Tract Infection from a Rural Area of Northeast India

Community-acquired Urinary Tract Infection (CA-UTI) is a very common condition and often treated by empirical antibiotic therapy. This has led to the problem of drug resistance in the community pathogens. As information on profile and antibiotic resistance, especially from rural areas is very hard to come by, this study was carried out on adult CA-UTI subjects presenting in a rural tertiary care teaching hospital of lower Assam. Outdoor patients were included and urine samples were tested by standard microbiological methods. Isolated organisms were processed for antibiotic susceptibility and MIC (selected cases). Out of 1436 samples 27.1% was found to have significant bacteriuria by single agents with more infection in female than in male. E coli was the predominant agent (62.2%) followed by Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CONS) at 11.8%, Klebsiella (11.3%) and Entercocci (6.3%). High prevalence of drug resistance amongst the isolates was observed, especially against common agent of empirical treatments like Ciprofloxacin, Amoxycalv etc. MIC level of Ciprofloxacin in E coli seemed to be rising and in few cases, level has reached beyond 32mcg/ml. This is alarming for a community pathogen from a rural area. Urgent necessity for an evidence based antibiotic policy cannot be ruled out.