ABSTRACT

An investigation to assess the prevalence of urinary tract infections (UTI) and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of urinary pathogens was conducted among newly admitted students of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Urine specimens were collected from Two hundred (200) students undergoing medical screening at the MOUAU Health Services. The urine samples were cultured on Cysteine Lactose Electrolyte Deficient Agar (CLED) at 37°C for 24 hours. Identification of the bacterial isolates was done following appropriate microbiological procedures. There were sixty-one (61) isolates consisting of Staphylococcus species 22(36%), Staphylococcus aureus 21(34.4%), Escherichia co/i 7(11.5%), Klebsiella species 5(8.2%), Proteus mirabilis 1(1.6%) and 5 isolates (8.2%) which could not be identified by the biochemical methods used. The prevalence of urinary tract infection (UTI) determined by urinary bacterial load of i05CFU/ml or greater was 30.5%. The isolates were tested against eleven (11) antibiotics. Eleven (11) isolates of Staphylococcus species, fourteen (14) isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, one (1) isolate of Proteus mirabilis, four (4) isolates of Klebsiella species, and three (3) isolates of Escherichia co/i were sensitive to Ofloxacin. Three (3) isolates of Staphylococcus species, four (4) isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were sensitive to Gentamicin. Two (2) isolates of Klebsielia species and one (1) isolate of Escherichia co/i were sensitive to Ciprofloxacin. However all bacterial isolates showed high resistance to Ceftazidime (100%), Cefuroxime (100%), Cefixime (100%), Augmentin (100%), Nitrofurantoin (100%), Cloxacillin (100%), Erythromycin (100%) and Cotrimoxazole (100%). Since the prevalence of UTI obtained from the above study was high, and the urine pathogens isolated showed high level of resistance to most antibiotics used, there is need for educational programmes and/or seminars to enlighten the students on urinary tract infections. Attention should be paid to antibiotic abuse to retard development of further drug resistance.