Abstract

Urinary tract infections are the most common bacterial infections during pregnancy and if left untreated in pregnancy it may result in acute pyelonephritis, abortion, premature delivery, low birth baby and even still birth. Thus the aim of this study was to determine the bacterial profile and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of urinary tract infection in pregnant women at Karamara Hospital Jigjiga, Eastern Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 190 pregnant women at Karamara Hospital. Clean catch midstream urine was collected and cultured on MacConkey and Blood agar for isolation and on Muller Hinton agar media for antibiotic sensitivity tests. The present study showed that overall prevalence of UTI was 13.2%. Escherichia coli was the most frequently isolated organism 10 (40%) followed by Citrobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., coagulase negative Staphylococci (CoNS) and Staphylococcus aureus each 3 (12%), Proteus species 2 (8%) and Pseudomonas aeuroginosa 1 (4%). Gram-negative isolates showed high resistance rate of 89.5% and 84.2% to amoxicillin and ampicillin, respectively. All Gram-negative bacterial isolates revealed low level of resistance (26.3%) against ciprofloxacin. Among the total isolates (n=25), multi-drug resistance (resistance for two or more drugs) were observed in 24 (96 %) of all bacterial pathogen from urine specimen. The present study revealed bacterial agents which causing urinary tract infections amongst pregnant women were multidrug resistant. E.coli was the most common isolated bacteria from mid-stream urine specimen.

Key words: Pregnancy, urinary tract infection, antimicrobial sensitivity pattern.