Profile and antibiotic susceptibility of urinary pathogenic bacteria in children attending Raparen Hospital, Erbil, Iraq

A urinary tract infection is a colonization of uropathogens anywhere in the urinary tract: kidney, ureter, bladder, and urethra. Most paediatric Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are caused by Gram-negative coliform bacteria arising from faecal flora colonising the perineum, which enter and ascend the urinary tract.The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of UTI among febrile children of different ages presented with specific or non-specific symptoms suggestive of UTI. The samples acquired from children were cultured on MacConkey agar and Blood agar by using disposable loops. The cultures were incubated for 24 hours at 37 °C. The positive cultures were recognized by the bacterial colony features. Gram staining technique was used to distinguish Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, while  VITEK® 2 microbial ID/AST was conducted for the entire diagnosis. The study observed the respondents  (48.5%) of the participants were 5 – 10 years old, more than one quarter (28.5%) of them were <5 years, the majority (83.8%) were female, and 16.2% of them were male. Regarding culture and sensitivity tests, 46.2% of children had bacteriuria. About 43.8% of infections were caused by Gram-negative bacteria, while only 2.3% were caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Escherichia coli was the most common cause of urinary tract infection (UTI), accounting for 32.3%, followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (3.1%) and only 1.5% of patients had Staphylococcus Aureus.  The uropathogens were mostly resistant to the cephalosporin group.  E. coli remained the most predominant uropathogen in children. The results showed that meropenem, imipenem, amikacin, and ciprofloxacin were drug of choice in UTI therapy.