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Abstract Background Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common infectious diseases diagnosed in the community as well as in hospitals. Community-acquired urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli represent the largest proportion of infectious diseases affecting women and a significant amount of oral antibiotics are prescribed daily to treat UTI in community outpatient clinics. Having knowledge of regional susceptibility data regarding E. coli is very important for selecting an appropriate empirical antibiotic. This study aimed to report the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility of E. coli isolated from community-acquired urinary tract infections post-Covid-19 pandemic. Methods This study was a retrospective analysis from January to December 2023 based on the analysis of 24,019 uropathogens isolated from 182 outpatient health centers located in several regions of São Paulo city, Brazil. The urine samples were cultivated onto ChromID™CPS® agar plates by semi-quantitative technique using 1µL disposable loop, incubated at 35-37°C and the colony counting were read after 24h and 48h of incubation. The bacteria identification was performed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (Vitek-MS), and the minimal inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics were determined using the Vitek®2 system, according to the manufacture’s recommendations. Only positive results with one bacterial species and a colony count ≥105 CFU/mL was considered for descriptive analysis. Results Of the 24,019 urine samples tested, 71.44% (17,159/24,019) were identified as Escherichia coli. The major frequency of E. coli infection occurred among women (90.48%) and the main age range was over 60 years (38.57%), while 21-30 comprised 16.5% of cases. The antimicrobial resistance profile for E. coli isolates showed 39.9% (6852/17158) of resistance to ciprofloxacin (MIC, 0.5 mg/L), 34.7% (5,921/17,075) to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (MIC, 0.5 mg/L), 37.5% (6,371/17,002) to Amoxicillin/clavulanate (MIC, 8 mg/L), 8.75% (1,501/17,592) to ceftriaxone (MIC, 1 mg/L), 4.88% (837/17,138) to cefepime (MIC, 4 mg/L), 3.64% (616/16,901) to piperacillin/tazobactam (MIC, 8 mg/L), 11.07% (1,900/17,156) of gentamicin (MIC, 2 mg/L), 0.43% (74/17,158) of amikacin (MIC, 8 mg/L) and 2.23% (377/16,909) of fosfomycin (MIC, 16 mg/L). High-level of susceptibility was detected to carbapenems with 99.94% (10/17159) to ertapenem (MIC, ≤0.5 mg/L) and 99.8% (4/17,159) to meropenem (MIC, ≤2 mg/L). The rate of Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production was 8.1% (1391/17159). Conclusions This data could be used locally with other related samples, to properly interpret significant resistance patterns and choose the most appropriate antimicrobial for empirical treatment of patients with community-acquired urinary tract infections.
Ramadan-Boscolo et al. (Tue,) studied this question.