Bacterial Profile and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Patterns of Asymptomatic Urinary Tract Infection Among Pregnant Women Attending Ante-natal Care at Kairuki Hospital, Dar es-Salaam ,Tanzania

IntroductionUrinary tract infections are common to pregnant and nonpregnant women estimated to 150 million new cases annually. The incidence increases with pregnancy due changes that take place. Causative microbes are E.coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococci species. The disease presents symptomatically or asymptomatically, early investigation, detection and treatment to pregnant mothers are crucial to avoid maternal and foetal complications. Several effective antimicrobials are contraindicated using ineffective agents jeopardizes treatment outcome leading to multidrug resistance. We assessed UTI causative microbes and susceptibility patterns to common antibiotics. MethodsWe conducted a hospital based cross sectional study at Kairuki hospital involving 262 pregnant mothers attending ante-natal clinics. Mid-stream urine was collected and inoculated on Cysteine-lactose-electrolyte-deficient agar, MacConkey and blood agar. Eleven microbes were isolated and tested for susceptibility against antibiotics using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique on Mueller-Hinton agar. Data analysed using SPSS package version 23. ResultsThe prevalence of UTI in pregnant mothers was 31.2% (82/262). The gram positive isolates were more prevalent than gram nmoste (59.3% versus 40.7%) Staphylococcus aureus 22/82 (26.2%) and S. saprophyticus 15/82 (17.9%) were the mostly isolated. Nitrofurantoin, Piperacillin/tazobactam have lowest resistant rate to both gram negative and gram positive isolates ranging from (0-26%) while Erythromycin and Ampicillin have the highest resistant rate ranging from (60-100%) therefore associated with multidrug resistant. ConclusionAsymptomatic UTI is prevalent to pregnant women at this hospital. We recommend culture and sensitivity results to guide treatment and usage of nitrofurantoin, piperacillin/tazobactam as first line treatment of UTI in pregnancy.