Abstract

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common cause of febrile illness in children. The prevalence of UTI is approximately 7% in febrile children; but varies by age, ethnicity, sex, and circumcision status. Over time, the antibiogram of the uro-pathogens has changed, with emerging resistant strains.

Purpose: We studied the characteristics and microbiota of the children admitted with a possible diagnosis of UTI, over a 2-year period at a tertiary government hospital in Abu Dhabi.

Method: We reviewed the electronic medical records at a tertiary hospital in Abu Dhabi. Children aged 1 month to 12 years of age, admitted for possible UTI between December 2014 to September 2016 were included. Their data particulates were tabulated and expressed as percentages.

Results: The study included 90 children hospitalized with possible UTI, with a female predominance of 78%. Of all the females admitted with possible UTI, the majority were of 3 - 12 years of age (85%). In contrary, most males admitted with possible UTI were of 1 - 3 months of age (50%). 55% of the males were noted to be uncircumcised. The majority (68.9%) of the urine specimens were collected by mid- stream, clean catch method. With reference to the AAP guidelines, 59.8% of the positive urine cultures actually had “significant” growth of bacteria and diagnosed as confirmed UTI cases. The major uro-pathogen identified in them was E. coli (77%), of whom- 12% were ESBL positive.

Conclusion: UTI among hospitalized children is more common in females, uncircumcised males and in the younger age group i.e. 1 - 3 months of age. E. coli still remains the most common uro-pathogen with emerging ESBL being noted in our population.

Keywords: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI); E. coli; ESBL

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