Etiology and Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Pathogens Associated with Urinary Tract Infections among Women Attending Antenatal Care in Four South African Tertiary-Level Facilities, 2015-2019

• Main Authors: Thembekile Zwane (Author), Liliwe Shuping (Author), Olga Perovic (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

In South Africa, uncomplicated community-acquired UTIs (CA-UTIs) are treated empirically; however, the extent of antibiotic resistance among these pathogens is not well known. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study of women attending ANCs at four tertiary public-sector hospitals in Gauteng. Female patients aged 15-49 years, with urine cultures performed between January 2015 and December 2019, were included. A case of culture-confirmed UTI was defined as any woman with ≤2 uropathogens with a bacterial count of ≥105 colony-forming units per ml for at least one pathogen. We identified 3558 cases of culture-confirmed UTIs in women with a median age of 30 years (interquartile range; 25-35). <i>E. coli</i> accounted for most infections (56% (1994/3558)), followed by <i>E. faecalis,</i> with a prevalence of 17% (609/3558). The prevalence of <i>K. pneumoniae</i> was 5% (193/3558), 5% (186/3558) for <i>S. agalactiae,</i> and 5% (179/3558) for <i>P. mirabilis</i>. Ninety-five percent (1827/1927) of the <i>E. coli</i> and 99% of the <i>E. faecalis</i> (301/305) isolates were susceptible to nitrofurantoin. Common uropathogens showed high susceptibility to first-line antibiotics, gentamicin and nitrofurantoin, as recommended for use in primary healthcare settings. Overall, our study provided an indication of the level of antimicrobial resistance in the four facilities.

Item Description

10.3390/antibiotics10060669
2079-6382