Background:Urinary tract infection is the most common bacterial infections in humans and serious health problem in many parts of the world. It has become more complicated in treatment due to different pathogens and increasing resistant to antimicrobial agents. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of urinary tract infection and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of pathogens among the patients attending in B & B hospital Nepal.Materials and Methods:A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in between April 2010 to March 2011. Urine samples were collected from clinically suspected patients and tested bacteriologically using standard procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed for isolated pathogen using the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines.Results:Out of 1260 examined specimens 25.24 % were positive and majority 61.64% were females.  The most common pathogens isolated were Escherichia coli (66.67%), Enterococcus (7.55%) and Staphylococcus (6.60 %). The drug resistant among the positive cases were reported. The highest resistant of positive cases was found with Cefexime (87.88%) and Enterococcus with Ampicillin (66.67%) and Staphyllococcus with Cloxacillin (66.67%). The highest susceptibility was for Vancomycin and Ampicillin i.e. 33.33% in each.Conclusion:The findings showed that E. coli isolates were the predominant pathogen and the presence of bacterial isolates with very high resistance to the commonly prescribed drugs. As drug resistance among bacterial pathogens is an evolving process and serious issue. Therefore, routine surveillance and monitoring studies should be conducted to provide physicians knowledge on the updated and most effective empirical treatment of UTIs. Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.7(5) 2016 47-51

No abstract

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is a common and serious health problem affecting many people each year around the World especially females. Therapy of UTI relies on the predictability of the agents causing UTI and knowledge of their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in two major hospitals of Western Nepal. Tools for data collection were a data collection form. Total 400 patient's file with suspected UTI were reviewed, out of which 173 (43.3 %) of the suspected samples showed presence of potential pathogens causing UTI. UTI was mostly prevalent in females of age group 21-30. Escherichia coli (E. coli) was the predominant (65.1%) bacterial pathogen. Amikacin was found to be most sensitive antimicrobial followed by Nitrofurantoin and Gentamcin. Ampicillin showed the higher percentage of resistant, compared to other antimicrobials. As drug resistance among bacterial pathogens is an evolving process, regular surveillance and monitoring is necessary to provide effective treatment of UTIs.

Background: Despite various supply-side efforts, out of pocket expenditure occupies a considerable portion of healthcare financing in Nepal. With the recent process of federalization in country, there is additional scope for contextualized planning at provincial level to prevent catastrophic health expenditure among Nepalese households. In this context, this study intends to estimate the proportion of population facing catastrophic health expenditure at national and provincial level and identify the determinants of catastrophic health expenditure.Methods: This study involved analysis of Nepal Living Standard Survey III, which was a cross sectional study. Out of 5,988 households comprising 28,460 individuals, data from total of 7,911 individuals who reported having acute or chronic illness was extracted and analyzed in the study.Results: In the study, 11.11% of households had faced catastrophic health expenditure. Catastrophic health expenditure was found to be 11.3% in Province 1, 9.4% in Province 2, 10.7% in Bagmati Province, 10% in Gandaki Province, 11.7% in Lumbini Province, 13.3% in Karnali Province and 13.4% in Sudurpaschim Province. Household size, literacy status of household head, consumption quintile, urban or rural residence, type of illness and type of health facility visited were identified as determinants of catastrophic health expenditure.Conclusions: A tenth of households, most of whom lying below poverty line, residing in rural areas, suffering from chronic illness are facing catastrophic healthcare burden. The government needs to pursue its equity-oriented strategies preventing catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment associated with it.Keywords: Catastrophic health expenditure; out of pocket payment; Nepal

Background: Access to medicine for the poor is recognized to be difficult task and one of the major challenges in achieving universal health coverage, particularly in low-and- middle income countries. In order to ensure the availability of essential medicines free of cost in public health facilities, Nepal has also commenced Free Health Care Services (FHCS). So, this study aims to evaluate availability, expiry, and stock-out duration of essential medicines at front line service providers in Nepal.Methods: Cross-sectional survey was conducted 28 public health facilities, 7 district warehouses, and 14 private pharmacies in 7 districts of Nepal. The survey was conducted during the March and April 2014. Survey tools recommended by the WHO operational package for assessing, monitoring and evaluating country pharmaceutical situations was used with slight modification as per Nepal’s situation.Results: The availability of medicine was found to be 92.44% in this study. The percentage of expired medicines in district warehouse was found to be 8.40. The average stock-out duration in district warehouse was 0.324 days.Conclusions: Although the availability of essential medicines at peripheral health facilities was found to be satisfactory with lesser proportion of expired medicines, a strong monitoring and evaluation of expired and stock medicines are desirable to maintain and improve the access to essential medicines.