Prevalence and associated factors of urinary tract infections among diabetic patients in Arba Minch Hospital, Arba Minch province, South Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common and grave health problem in the world. In fact, patients with diabetes mellitus have an immense risk for developing UTI. The development of resistance among uropathogens to antibiotics is a major crisis which limits the use of drug of choice for the treatment of UTI. On this view point, the aim of the present study is to elucidate the prevalence of UTI, associated factors, causative agents and their antimicrobial susceptibility amongst diabetic patients attending Arba Minch Hospital, Arba Minch, Ethiopia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A facility based cross-sectional study was carried out in diabetic patients visiting the Internal Medicine Unit of Arba Minch Hospital (AMH) during the study period (March to May 2016). Pre-tested structured questionnaire was used for collecting the data pertaining to socio-demographic characteristics and possible risk factors. In order to quantify the uropathogens, midstream urine samples were collected in sterile leak proof culture bottles and streaked onto diverse bacteriological media. All the positive urine cultures showing significant bacteriuria as per the Kass count (>105 organisms/mL) were further subjected to biochemical tests. The antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed to determine the resistance/susceptibility pattern of isolated uropathogens. Data entry and analysis were done using Statistical Package for Social Services, version 20.

RESULTS: In total, 239 diabetic patients were included in the study of which 60.2% (n=144) were females. A total of 81 (33.8%) diabetic patients had positive urine cultures. Sixty-eight (83.9%) female diabetic patients had significant bacteriuria (p=0.000). Fifty-two (64.1%) participants had drinking habit and 79 (97.5%) of respondents had higher glucose levels (≥126 mg/dL) (p=0.004 and p=0.003), respectively. According to the biochemical tests, in a total of 90 isolates from patients with significant bacteriuria, eight species of uropathogens such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp., Proteus sp., Citrobacter spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CNS), Enterococcus faecalis and yeast isolates were identified. The antibiogram evidenced that 79.6% (n=51) of Gram-negative bacteria were invariably resistant to amoxicillin and penicillin whereas 73.4% (n=47) and 65.6 % (n=42) of them were resistant to trimethoprim, erythromycin and chloramphenicol, respectively. Regarding the Gram-positive bacteria, high degree of resistance was exhibited towards penicillin and trimethoprim (100%, n=24) followed by amoxicillin (83.3%, n=20) and gentamicin (62.5%, n=15). Invariably, all the Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative bacilli were susceptible (100%) to amikacin, doxycycline, ceftriaxone and nitrofurantoin.

CONCLUSION: The prevalence of UTI is higher in diabetic patients. Results revealed that the predominant pathogens of UTI were Gram-negative bacilli (Enterobacteriaceae), particularly E. coli. Significant bacteriuria had an association with the consumption of alcohol, gender and glucose level. Based on the results of antimicrobial susceptibility tests, it might be inferred that the antibiotics such as amikacin, doxycycline, ceftriaxone and nitrofurantoin are the drugs of choice for the management of both Gram-negative and Gram-positive uropathogenic bacteria in the study area.