Antibiotic resistance of bacteria associated with community-acquired urinary tract infections in the southern area of the Gaza Strip.

The aim of this study was to identify the microorganisms that cause "community-acquired" urinary tract infections among adults and to investigate their resistance to fourteen selected antimicrobial agents. The uropathogens identified in 121 positive midstream urine cultures from the 270 subjects included in this study were Escherichia coli (57.9%), Proteus species (9.9%), Enterobacter species (7.4%), Klebsiella species (6.6%), Pseudomonas species (5.8%), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (5.0%), Enterococcus species (3.3%), Acinetobacter species (2.5%), Citrobacter species (0.8%) and Staphylococcus aureus (0.8%). Isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing and a high proportion of the isolates was found to be resistant to amoxycillin (73.6%), doxycycline (68.6%) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (66.1%). The most effective drugs against all the isolates were ciprofloxacin (95.9%), amikacin (95.0%) and ceftazidime (94.2%). A high percentage of multiple-drug resistance was also observed for the majority of the isolates.