ObjectiveRespiratory tract infections cause significant morbidity and mortality globally and are the most common infectious diseases in humans. This study aims at assessing the presence of bacterial respiratory infections, number of people infected and antimicrobial susceptibility profile among antibiotic naïve outpatients presenting with respiratory tract infections in Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital.MethodsThe study was conducted in Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital, Meru County from April 2017 to August 2018. Upper respiratory infections were characterized by acute infection of nasal cavity, pharynx and larynx while lower respiratory infections were characterized by chest pains, prolonged cough, productive sputum, difficulty in breathing, fever and weight loss. A total of 384 sputum and throat samples were collected aseptically from patients who were clinically suspected to have respiratory infections and cultured in blood agar, MacConkey agar and chocolate agar. Bacterial isolates were identified by colonial morphology, Gram stain and confirmed by biochemical tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility profile was determined using agar disc diffusion method.ResultsRespiratory bacterial pathogens were isolated in 45.6% of the samples. The prevalence of the bacteria species isolated were as followsPseudomonasspecies (36.6%),Klebsiellaspecies (20.6%),Staphylococcus aureus(16.6%),Streptococcus pyogenes(13.7%),Streptococcus pneumoniae (10.3%) and mixed isolates (2.3%). Amoxicillin and ampicillin recorded the highest resistance rate. Most of the isolates displayed high level of resistance to more than two antibiotics. Although multidrug resistance is reported in the study, gentamicin, amikacin and cefuroxime are recommended as the antibiotics of choice against bacterial isolates obtained.ConclusionBacterial respiratory infections were prevalent in the study area and the isolates obtained showed resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as amoxicillin, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin piperacillin ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, piperacillin-tazobactam and cephalexin. Therefore need for a continuous surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in management of respiratory infections in the study area.