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Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common bacterial infections in childhood, with the potential to cause acute and long-term complications. Diagnosing UTI in children is often challenging due to non-specific symptoms, difficulty in collecting sterile specimens, and cultur...

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Main Author: Shepherd, Danielle
Other Authors: Nuttall, James
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Shepherd, Danielle
author2 Nuttall, James
author_browse Nuttall, James
Shepherd, Danielle
author_facet Nuttall, James
Shepherd, Danielle
author_sort Shepherd, Danielle
collection Thesis
description Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common bacterial infections in childhood, with the potential to cause acute and long-term complications. Diagnosing UTI in children is often challenging due to non-specific symptoms, difficulty in collecting sterile specimens, and culture results only becoming available after 24-48 hours, necessitating initiation of empiric antibiotic therapy. Recent data on the epidemiology and antibiotic susceptibility profile of community-acquired bacterial UTI in children in Cape Town is lacking. Objectives: To describe the clinical profile and organisms including antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) results in children <10 years of age with community-acquired, culture-confirmed bacterial UTI attending Victoria Hospital, Cape Town. To compare the AST findings with the current South African (SA) Hospital Level Paediatric Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) which recommend oral or parenteral amoxicillin/clavulanic acid as first-line empiric treatment for children with UTI, with ceftriaxone included as an alternative for neonates or acutely ill infants. Methods: A retrospective review of medical records and laboratory results of children <10 years of age who had a urine specimen submitted for culture and AST to the National Health Laboratory Service from Victoria Hospital between 1 February 2016 – 31 July 2019 was performed. The study definition of a culture-confirmed bacterial UTI is modified from the SA STG guidelines: (1) any culture from a suprapubic aspirate, (2) culture of >104 colony forming units (CFU)/mL of a single organism from a catheter urine specimen, (3) culture of >105 CFU/mL of a single organism from a mid-stream clean catch specimen or if the urine sampling technique was not indicated in the laboratory or medical records. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: From 528 urine specimens submitted, 89 specimens met the study definition of bacterial UTI and were included in the microbiological analysis. Seventy-eight children with available medical records were included in the demographic and clinical analysis. Median (interquartile range) age was 25 (0;117) months and 58% were female. One or more nonspecific features of systemic illness were reported in 65% of children, and 51% had at least one symptom specific to the urinary system. Enterobacterales accounted for 99% of the organisms cultured (85% were Escherichia coli) and their susceptibility was amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (58%), cefuroxime (84%), third and fourth generation cephalosporins (88%), ciprofloxacin (94%), gentamicin (86%) and nitrofurantoin (90%). Eleven (12%) isolates were extended spectrum beta lactamase-producing organisms but no carbapenem-resistant organisms were isolated. Conclusion: Although this study did not evaluate clinical outcomes of children, the AST finding that only 58% of Enterobacterales isolates were susceptible to the recommended empiric treatment with amoxicillin/clavulanic acid raises the concern that children may not be receiving appropriate treatment for UTI. Further research is needed on the antibiotic susceptibility profile and clinical outcome of children treated for UTI in order to inform appropriate empiric antibiotic treatment recommendations.
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38162 Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa Shepherd, Danielle Nuttall, James Paediatrics Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common bacterial infections in childhood, with the potential to cause acute and long-term complications. Diagnosing UTI in children is often challenging due to non-specific symptoms, difficulty in collecting sterile specimens, and culture results only becoming available after 24-48 hours, necessitating initiation of empiric antibiotic therapy. Recent data on the epidemiology and antibiotic susceptibility profile of community-acquired bacterial UTI in children in Cape Town is lacking. Objectives: To describe the clinical profile and organisms including antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) results in children <10 years of age with community-acquired, culture-confirmed bacterial UTI attending Victoria Hospital, Cape Town. To compare the AST findings with the current South African (SA) Hospital Level Paediatric Standard Treatment Guidelines (STG) which recommend oral or parenteral amoxicillin/clavulanic acid as first-line empiric treatment for children with UTI, with ceftriaxone included as an alternative for neonates or acutely ill infants. Methods: A retrospective review of medical records and laboratory results of children <10 years of age who had a urine specimen submitted for culture and AST to the National Health Laboratory Service from Victoria Hospital between 1 February 2016 – 31 July 2019 was performed. The study definition of a culture-confirmed bacterial UTI is modified from the SA STG guidelines: (1) any culture from a suprapubic aspirate, (2) culture of >104 colony forming units (CFU)/mL of a single organism from a catheter urine specimen, (3) culture of >105 CFU/mL of a single organism from a mid-stream clean catch specimen or if the urine sampling technique was not indicated in the laboratory or medical records. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: From 528 urine specimens submitted, 89 specimens met the study definition of bacterial UTI and were included in the microbiological analysis. Seventy-eight children with available medical records were included in the demographic and clinical analysis. Median (interquartile range) age was 25 (0;117) months and 58% were female. One or more nonspecific features of systemic illness were reported in 65% of children, and 51% had at least one symptom specific to the urinary system. Enterobacterales accounted for 99% of the organisms cultured (85% were Escherichia coli) and their susceptibility was amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (58%), cefuroxime (84%), third and fourth generation cephalosporins (88%), ciprofloxacin (94%), gentamicin (86%) and nitrofurantoin (90%). Eleven (12%) isolates were extended spectrum beta lactamase-producing organisms but no carbapenem-resistant organisms were isolated. Conclusion: Although this study did not evaluate clinical outcomes of children, the AST finding that only 58% of Enterobacterales isolates were susceptible to the recommended empiric treatment with amoxicillin/clavulanic acid raises the concern that children may not be receiving appropriate treatment for UTI. Further research is needed on the antibiotic susceptibility profile and clinical outcome of children treated for UTI in order to inform appropriate empiric antibiotic treatment recommendations. 2023-07-28T06:54:05Z 2023-07-28T06:54:05Z 2023 2023-07-28T06:53:33Z Master Thesis Masters MMed http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38162 eng application/pdf Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Paediatrics
Shepherd, Danielle
Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
title_full Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
title_fullStr Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
title_short Urinary tract infection in children at Victoria Hospital, a district hospital in Cape Town, South Africa
title_sort urinary tract infection in children at victoria hospital a district hospital in cape town south africa
topic Paediatrics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38162
work_keys_str_mv AT shepherddanielle urinarytractinfectioninchildrenatvictoriahospitaladistricthospitalincapetownsouthafrica