Prevalence of urinary tract infection among pregnant women at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the most common bacterial infections during pregnancy and these infections. Untreated UTI can be associated with serious obstetric complications. This cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of UTI among symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women attending Bugando Medical centre (BMC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. A total of 247 pregnant women were enrolled, of these 78 (31.5%) were symptomatic and 169 (68.4%) asymptomatic. UTI was diagnosed using mid stream urine (MSU) culture on standard culture media and urinalysis was done using rapid dip stick. The prevalence of bacteriuria among symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women were 17.9% and 13.0% respectively, with no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.307). Using univariate analysis there was no association of parity (p = 0.825), gestational age (p = 0.173), education (p = 0.615), age (p = 0.211) and marital status (p = 0.949) with bacteriuria. The sensitivity and specificity of urine dipstick was 38.9% and 86.7% respectively. Escherichia coli (47.2%) and Enterococcus spp (22.2%) were the most commonly recovered pathogens. The rate of resistance of Escherichia coli to ampicillin, tetracycline, sulfamethaxazole/trimethoprim, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, ceftriaxone, and imipenem were 53%, 58.8%, 64.7%, 5.9%, 11.8%, 5.9%, 29.4% and 0%, respectively. In conclusion, asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women is prevalent in our setting and majority of Escherichia coli are resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, SXT and ceftriaxone. Due to low sensitivity of rapid dip stick, routine urine culture and susceptibility testing is recommended to all pregnant women at booking.