Prevalence of Uropathogens in Diabetic Patients and their Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern

The prevalence of bacteria causing UTI in diabetic patients, as well as their susceptibility to commonly used antibiotics was investigated in Benin City. Bacteriological analysis involved standard biochemical tests and comparison of isolates’ characteristics with known taxa. Species isolated from the urine samples analysed were Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Proteus mirabilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Gram-negative isolates had a prevalence of 60 %, while Gram-positive isolates had 40 %. E. coli were found to be the most prevalence (44.4 %), while the least prevalent were P. aeruginosa(11.1 %),S. aureus(11.1 %) and S. saprophyticus (11.1 %). Isolates were found to be more in females than males. Three out of the six male diabetics sampled had uropathogens, while six out of the fifteen female diabetics sampled had uropathogens. Susceptibility tests were performed by Bauer-Kirby disc-diffusion method with standard antibiotics. The results were expressed as susceptible or resistant. All the isolates were found to be susceptible to ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. They were also found to be multi-drug resistant. This study showed that diabetic patients had increased risk of urinary tract infections due to the presence of uropathogens