Prevalence of Urinary Tract Infections among Pregnant Women Visiting Antenatal Care Clinic in a Teaching Hospital: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Urinary Tract Infection is a common infection in pregnant women and ranges from 3.3% to 24.6%. Though there are studies on patterns of microorganisms and the antibiotic susceptibility patterns, microorganism patterns vary in our locality and also the sensitivity pattern. Objectives: (a) To study the prevalence of UTI in pregnant women (b) To identify the microorganisms associated (c) To find out their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. Methodology: A Cross sectional study was conducted for two months at the Antenatal Care Clinic in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Department of Microbiology in S.C.B. Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack. Sample Size: Sample size was calculated to be 196 by using prevalence of UTI among pregnant women to be 15 % and with precision of 5% and 95% confidence level. In this study 200 pregnant women were included. Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The overall prevalence of UTI was 14 % (95% CI 9.2-18.8) of which 8.5% cases were symptomatic for UTI and 5.5% were asymptomatic. Among the isolates, E. Coli (39.30%) was found to be the most common causative organism and showed higher sensitivity to Nitrofurantoin (100%) and Imipenem (72.7%). Klebsiella pneumoniae were sensitive to Imipenem, Ciprofloxacin and Amikacin (100%). Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) isolates were highly sensitive to Gentamicin, Ampicillin Sulbactam, Linezolid and Vancomycin (100%). Enterococcus faecalis were sensitive to Ampicillin, Sulbactam, Linezolid and Vancomycin (100%). Proteus mirabilis was found to be highly sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Cefotaxime, Amikacin, Amoxyclav and Imipenem (100%). Staphylococcus aureus showed 100% sensitivity to Linezolid. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of UTI in pregnant women visiting the antenatal care clinic for routine check-up was found to be 14% in this study. Some of the isolates were found to be resistant to the commonly used antibiotics. Therefore, culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing should be carried out before prescribing antibiotics.