Urinary tract infection among children aged 1 to 59 months in a Tertiary Centre In Lafia, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The choice of empiric antibiotic treatment for urinary tract infection (UTI) must be guided by knowledge of the locally prevalent uropathogens, and their antibiogram.

Materials And Methods- A hospital-based cross sectional study of 184 children aged 1 month to 59 months recruited consecutively at the emergency paediatric unit of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital from July 2019 to November 2019.

Results- Culture proven UTI was documented in 16.3% of the children. More females than males had UTI. The uropathogens isolated were Klebsiella species (40%), Escherichia coli (36.7%) and Staphylococcus aureus (23.3%). A high sensitivity was shown to the quinolones and the aminoglycoside gentamicin. The isolates showed low sensitivity to the penicillins except augmentin. All the isolated organisms showed high resistance to Cotrimoxazole and Nalidixic acid.

Conclusion- Ciprofloxacin is an effective first line drug for the empirical treatment of UTI in children in our setting. Gentamicin can be used for those children who are very sick and unable to take orally. Penicillins, cotrimoxazole and nalidixic acid should not be used for empiric treatment of UTI in children in our setting.There is a need for continuous monitoring of uropathogens and their antibiogram to guide treatment in clinical settings.

Keywords: childhood, antibiotics, empirical, sensitivity, resistance.