Abstract

A reliable diagnosis of UTI in children is critical because they are usually underdiagnosed or over-diagnosed especially in children under five years of age. Antimicrobial susceptibility results are key to effective intervention. This study was done to determine the prevalence, predictors, and susceptibility patterns of bacterial urinary tract infections among febrile children aged less than 5 years presenting at Kampala International University Teaching Hospital. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted in entry points of the pediatric ward of KIU-TH between December 2020 and March 2021. The study enrolled a total of 350 children 2-59 months by consecutive enrolment. Urinalysis and urine culure was done, clinical and demographic data was collected using questionnaires and data analysed using SPSS version 27 with significance at 95% confidence interval. Isolates had a sensitivity pattern to Imipenem of 93.4%, Ciprofloxacin (85.4%), Amikacin (77.4%) and were extremely resistant to Cotrimoxazole (83.3%), Amoxicillin (80.0%) and Ampicillin (74.4%). There is a high resistance to commonly used antibiotics thus need to review the treatment protocols of UTI.
Keywords: Susceptibility patterns, bacterial, urinary tract and infections.