Incidence and Antibiogram of Uropathogens Isolated from Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinic in a Public Hospitalin Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Urinary tract infection during pregnancy including asymptomatic bacteriuria has been associated with some adverse outcomes for the mother and foetus.  Studies have shown that pregnant women with urinary tract infections have a significantly higher rate of intra-uterine growth restriction, pre-eclampsia, caesarean and pre-term deliveries. This study was undertaken to determine the occurrence, distribution and antibacterial susceptibility pattern of uropathogens among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic in a public hospital in Yola. A total of 200 clean catch mid-stream urine samples were collected from pregnant women and inoculated on cysteine lactose electrolyte deficient agar for bacterial count and isolation of uropathogens. The isolates were also screened for ability to form biofilms using Congo Red Agar method and antibiotic susceptibility test was done on the isolates using agar disk diffusion method. The incidence of UTI among the pregnant women was found to be 90%. The predominant uropathogens were E. coli (46.0%), S. aureus (20.0%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (17.0%) while the least occurring uropathogen was Proteus sp. (2.0%).  Women in the third and first trimester of pregnancy had the highest occurrence of UTI. A total of 47.0% of the isolates produced biofilm in vitro with the highest biofilm production observed among Proteus sp. (75.0%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (60.0%) isolates. The occurrence of antibiotic resistance among the isolates was high, with greater susceptibility observed to quinolone and third generation cephalosporin. The E. coli isolates demonstrated varying levels of resistance to all the antibiotics tested. Because of the gravity of problems of UTI in pregnancy and that 9 in 10 pregnant women from this study have symptomatic or asymptomatic infection, it is concluded that pregnant women should be screened for urinary tract infection during antenatal visits especially during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy.