ABSTRACT
Urinary tract infection happens to be common and is generally treated empirically by general practitioners, for which they need to be aware of the locally prevalent strains and their sensitivity pattern. Since over the last few decades the resistance pattern of urinary isolates has been showing dramatic changes all over the world, it was felt useful to study the existing microbiological pattern of the urinary tract infections in Kashmir valley and to assess the sensitivity profile of the isolated organisms to the generally used antibiotics for empirical therapy in primary health care settings. The retrospective analysis of 324 such samples which were found positive for pathological bacteria by the microbiology laboratory of Government Medical College, Srinagar, Kashmir revealed that 90.12% of the isolates were E. coli followed by klebsiella (7.72%) and staphylococcus (1.24%). Significantly 43.57% of the E. coli exhibited resistance to the commonly used antibiotics, and the most effective in-vitro agents were found to be amikacin followed by gentamicin among the injectables and ciprofloxacin among the orally administered ones. Other useful oral antibiotics were nitrofurantoin, chloramphenicol and nalidixic acid. The organisms showed resistance to currently preferred urinary antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents like co-trimoxazole, norfloxacin, pefloxacin and cephalexin. Conclusion was that among the orally administered antibiotics ciprofloxacin remains the choice while other quinolones or derivatives have turned ineffective and among the injectables gentamicin is still effective.