Urinary tract infections in adult and adolescent females of a developing community: pattern, bacteriology and genitourinary predisposing factors.

One hundred and twenty-seven consecutive adult and adolescent female patients with culture-proven urinary tract infections were analyzed to determine the pattern, bacteriology and the predisposing causes. Age ranged from 13 to 70 years (median 32, mean 35.7 years). Community acquired urinary tract infections occurred in 85%, while hospital acquired infections in 15% of cases. Urinary tract stones were the most frequently identified genitourinary predisposing causes, which occurred in 16 patients (15%). However, 52.3% of all patients had no identifiable predisposing cause. E. coli, the most frequently isolated organisms from patients with community acquired urinary tract infections, occurred in only 55.6%, while gram-positive cocci isolated from 28 patients (22%) are emerging as important hospital and community acquired urinary tract pathogens. The implications of these findings and a comparison with the reported literature are discussed.