Antibiotic sensitivity profile of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains at the China-Guinea Friendship Hospital of Kipé in Conakry (Guinea)

Introduction: Escherichia coli (E. coli) is one of the main bacterial species associated with urinary tract infections. Nowadays, this bacterium is becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the antibiotic sensitivity profiles of all strains of E. coli isolated from urine during the period from September 1st, 2018 to March 13th, 2019 at the Biomedical Laboratory of the China-Guinea Friendship Hospital of Kipe in Conakry. Materiel and Methods: Cultures were done on different agar media. Bacterial identification, antibiograms and determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were performed on the Vitek 2 Compact 15 automated system. Results: A total of 66 strains of E. coli have been isolated from patients of both sexes. The sex ratio (M/F) was 0.43. The mean age of the patients was 50.83 years. The majority of strains were sensitive to imipenem (96.96%), amikacin (96.96%), ertapenem (94.73%), gentamicin (69.23%), tobramycin (60, 60%), cefoxitin (64.28%), cefotaxime (62.50%), piperacillin/tazobactam (77.4%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (50.00%) and nitrofurantoin (87%). In contrast, the majority of strains were resistant to ampicillin (81.81%), cefalotin (62.02%), ticarcillin (88.00%), nalidixic acid (82.75%), ciprofloxacin (56.06%), ofloxacin (56.00%) and combination of trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (83.60%), sometimes with high MICs. Conclusion: Our results show that urinary tract infections due to E. coli are more frequently observed in females than in males. Some of these strains studied exhibited multidrug resistance profiles to antibiotics. Among the classes of antibiotics tested, carbapenemes, nitrofurans, aminoglycosides, appear to be more active on E. coli uropathogenes in Guinea.