The increased risk of bacteriuria in
pregnancy poses a threat to the mother and fetus, some
of which include preterm labor and pyelonephritis.
Screening for bacteriuria in pregnant women has been
included as one of the most cost effective strategies for
achieving the Millennium Development Goals for health
in developing countries.
Findings: The overall prevalence of bacteriuria among
pregnant women was 26.2%. It was higher in pregnant
women with symptoms of acute UTI (16.7%) than in
those without symptoms (9.5%). E. coli (26.7%), CoNS
(26.7%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.3%), Proteus
mirabilis (10%) and group D streptococci (10%) were
common uropathogens. Pyuria was the strongest
predictor of bacteriuria. However, there was no
statistically significant risk factor of bacteriuria thus,
limiting the possibility of targeted screening. GNB were
least resistant to gentamicin and ciprofloxacin while the
gram positives showed least resistance to cefuroxime. All
isolates were susceptible to nitrofurantoin.
Conclusion: This study reveals that bacteriuria occurs in
one of every four pregnant women and ASB occurs in
one of every ten pregnant women. This is of great
concern since bacteruiria is harmful to both mother and
fetus. However, 15 isolates showed resistance to at least
one antibiotic of the beta lactam class (50%) and 86.7%
of isolated uropathogens were resistant to at least one
antibiotic hence, we fail to reject the null hypothesis:
Resistant bacteria are the most frequent cause of
bacteriuria in pregnancy
Keywords : Bacteriuria, ASB, Uropathogens, Antibiotic Resistance