Abstract
Six thousand and nineteen urine samples submitted by clinicians from adult patients of Black Lion Hospital, Addis Abada, were studied by quantitative culture, and isolated strains were tested for antibiotic sensitivity. Only 27% showed significant bacteriuria (over 10 super(5) bacteria per ml); 1,732 pathogenic strains were isolated, 80% of them Enterobacteriaceae. Among the 1,732 strains, tested against 13 antibiotics, resistance was wide, and the effectiveness of ampicillin, carbenicillin, cephalothin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphadiazine and tetracycline was under 50% for all the frequent urinary pathogens commonly isolated. Gentamicin, nalidixic acid and polymyxin B controlled over 90% of the common infective agents, and, where culture and sensitivity testing of these agents are impossible, these would be the antibiotics of choice. Strains of Pseudomonas) were more resistant, and nalidixic acid was of little value, whereas Proteus strains were not controlled by polymyxin B.