The Prevalence of Virulence Factors Among Uropathogenic Escherichia coli Strains Isolated From Different Hospitals in Kurdistan Region-Iraq

In this study, 150 isolates of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) strains have been collected from different major hospitals in Kurdistan region and showed high resistant rates to most tested antibiotics accounting for 98%. There was no isolate that had demonstrated sensitive to all antibiotics, but they manifested with a wide range of resistance to most tested antibiotics ranging from resistance to just two antibiotics (2%) to resistance to 15 out of 16 tested antibiotics (9.3%). Imipenem was found as the most potent at all other antimicrobial agents with the resistance rate (4.7%), whereas Tetracycline, Ampicillin, Amoxicillin and Amoxicillin / Clavulanic acid had the least effect on UPEC strains with resistant rates of 83.3%, 92.6%, 90.6% and 90% respectively. The resistance patterns of Chloramphenicol, Norfloxacin, Ciprofloxacin and Nalidixic acid were 30%, 48.6%, 52.6% and 78% respectively. Amikacin, Gentamicin, Trimethoprim and Trimethoprim/ sulfamethoxazole antibiotics also showed low effect on tested isolates with resistant rates 46%, 70.7%, 77.3% and 73.3%. Cephalosporins including; Cefixime, Cefotaxime, Ceftriaxone with resistance rates of 78%, 78% and 71.3% respectively. The results of the detection five virulence related genes including; (cnf, hyl, sfa, afa, and pai) revealed that fifteen of these isolates accounting (10%) lacked any tested virulence markers. pai as a marker for presence of pathogenicity island was the most predominant marker among all other virulence markers accounting 110(73.3%) followed by cnf and hyl accounting 64(42.7%) and 61(40.6%) respectively, while the prevalence of sfa gene is found with the rate 34(22.7%) and afa with 27(18%).