Prevalence of Asymptomatic Bacteriuria among Pregnant Women in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Asymptomatic bacteriuria is one of the biggest risk factors for urinary tract infections during pregnancy, yet in most underdeveloped countries, such as Nigeria, there is no guideline that supports routine screening of pregnant women for asymptomatic bacteriuria. As a result, the purpose of this research was to investigate how often asymptomatic bacteriuria is among pregnant women who visit the antenatal clinic at Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital Birnin Kebbi. After receiving ethical permission from Ministry of Health in Kebbi State, Nigeria and informed consent from all pregnant women involved in the study, a total of 222 midstream urine samples were collected. The urine samples were inoculated on blood agar and CLED agar and then incubated for 24 hours at 37°C. The bacteria that were discovered were identified based on cultural morphology, gram staining properties and a variety of biochemical assays were used to identified them. The disc diffusion method was used to measure antimicrobial susceptibility according to CLSI guidelines. Among the isolates obtained the predominant bacteria associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria were coagulase negative staphylococci followed by Staphylococcus aureus with an estimated percentage occurrence of 51.6% and 40.2% respectively. Most of bacteria were isolated among the pregnant women within the age group 20-29 years 84 (68.9%), followed by age range 30-39 years with 28 (23.0%). The current study also revealed that, the cases of asymptomatic bacteriuria occur more predominantly in second trimester and most of the isolates were susceptible ciprofloxacin, azithromycin and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole. In conclusion, coagulase negative staphylococci was most predominant bacteria isolated and asymptomatic bacteriuria occurred more frequently among age group 20-29, mostly in second trimester. Ciprofloxacin remain a useful antibiotic in the treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in this location.