Evaluation of augmentin and cotrimoxazole against 276 pathogens in community acquired urinary tract infections [abstract]

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Augmentin and cotrimoxazole are the front-line drugs in the therapy of community acquired urinary tract infections. This report examines the in vitro efficacy of these two drugs against 276 urinary pathogens encountered from patients attending outpatient clinics at the University Hospital of the West Indies. METHODS: The urines collected from outpatients in 3 months (March to May, 2001) were cultured semi-quantitatively. The isolates (o 10 cfu/ml) were identified by routine methodology and antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined by the standard disc-diffusion technique. RESULTS: Of the 276 isolates, 190 (68.8 percent) were gram negative and 86 (31.2 percent ) were gram positive pathogens. The common isolates in order of frequency were Escherichia coli 89 (32.2 percent), Enterococci/Group D Streptocci 33 (12.0 percent, Proyteus mirabilis 28 (10.1 percent), Klebsiella sp 25 (9.1 percent) and coagulase negative Staphulococci 20 (7.2 percent). These five organisms together accounted for over two-thirds (70.7 percent of all isolates. Augmentin was effective against 71.0 percent of all, 68.9 percent of gram negative and 75.6 percent of gram positive pathogens and cotimoxazole was effective against 63.0 percent of all, 58.4 percent gram negative and 73.3 percent of gram-positive isolates. CONCLUSION: Despite decades of their usage, augmentin and cotrimoxazole continue to be effective in community acquired urinary tract infections. (AU)