title: Prevalence and antibiogram of bacterial isolates from urinary tract infections at Dessie Health Research Laboratory, Ethiopia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria from suspected urinary tract infections.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis of bacterial pathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibility was done on urine samples at Dessie Regional Laboratory in the period 2003 to 2010. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests were done using disc diffusion technique as per the standard of Kirby-Bauer method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The male to female ratio of the patients was 1:1.96. Of the total 1 404 samples, 319 (22.7%) were culture positive. Escherichia coli was the dominant isolate (63.6%) followed by Klebsiella spp. (8.5%) and Proteus spp. (8.2%). The overall resistance rates to erythromycin, amoxycillin, and tetracycline were 85.6%, 88.9% and 76.7%, respectively. The three most frequently isolated bacteria had resistance rates of 80.1%-90.0% to, amoxycillin, and tetracycline and sensitivity rates of 0 to 25% to nitrofurantoin, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. Antibiogram of isolates showed that 152 (47.85%) isolates were resistance to two and more antimicrobials.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the study area resistance rates to erythromycin, amoxycillin and tetracycline were high. Since most isolates were sensitive to nitrofurantoin and gentamicin, they are considered as appropriate antimicrobials for empirical treatment urinary tract infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Science College, Bahir Dar University, P.O.Box 79 Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Mulugeta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kibret
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Parasitology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahir Dar University, P.O.Box 79, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
authors.forename: Bayeh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Abera
keywords: Antimicrobial resistance bacteria; Ethiopia; Uropathogens