Antimicrobial Resistance among Uropathogenic Bacteria in Rural Kerala, India

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common of infections in the clinical practice. Among the bacterial agents of UTI, E. coli continues to be the commonest in both community acquired and hospital acquired cases (Gupta et al., 2002). Other pathogens include Klebsiella, Pseudomonas and other non-fermenters, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, Enterobacter, Citrobacter, Proteus, etc. Over the last decade there has been an alarming increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among the common bacterial agents of UTI in developing and developed countries. In this context, the empirical antibiotics used earlier in UTI such as ampicillin/amoxicillin, co-trimoxazole, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, etc. can no longer be used confidently. In the recent years antibiotic resistance is becoming a major problem not only in hospital acquired complicated UTIs but also in uncomplicated community acquired cases (Kavya et al., 2016) which makes the treatment of UTI more complex. On reviewing the literature it International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 9 (2017) pp. 2287-2296 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com