Introduction and objective. The study was carried out to determine the occurrence and antibiotics susceptibility profile of Escherichia coli recovered from patients with urinary tract infection (UTI) in Nsukka, southeastern Nigeria. Materials and method. Midstream urine samples were obtained from 266 outpatients. Standardized questionnaires were used to collect relevant information from the subjects. Urine samples were plated on MacConkey and eosin methylene blue agar. E. coliisolates were identified using standardized procedure. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was used to determine the susceptibility of the isolates.

Results. An overall UTI prevalence of 18.8% with 29 (19.30%) from females and 21 (18.10%) from males was observed. Females and males within the age range of 20–29 and 50–59 had the highest prevalence rate of 23.2% and 15%, respectively. The highest prevalence rate (26%) occurred in the Igbo-Etiti local government area, compared to the other four local government areas within the study locations. Urinalysis showed that 16 urine samples contained protein, 29 were nitrite positive and 31 were acidic. Most of the isolates were susceptible to nitrofurantoin (94%), ciprofloxacin (70%) and ofloxacin (78%) while all of them were completely resistant to cefuroxime, ceftazidime and augmentin (100%). All 50 (100%) E. coli isolates showed multiple resistance to three or more antibiotics with a resistance index ranging from 0.375–1.00. The MIC results showed that 17 (34%) isolates were sensitive to gentamicin (MIC≤ 0.25 µg/ml, MBC≥ 128µg/ml), resistant to ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin. Conclusion. E. coli is predominantly associated with UTI in the study area and was susceptible to nitrofurantoin.