Prevalence of Urinary Tract Infection in Women Attending Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano State, Nigeria

Background: Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) happened to be caused by the presence and growth of microorganisms anywhere in the urinary tract. Women were more vulnerable to as well as many factors contributed towards the development of UTIs.

Methods: Early morning midstream urine samples were collected from Murtala Muhammad Hospital. Freshly prepared cysteine-lactose electrolyte deficient (CLED) agar and MacConkey Agar were used and plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 hours for isolation. The resulting pure colonies obtained were used for biochemical tests aimed at identifying the bacterial isolates as well as subjected to Gram staining.

Results: Out of 120 samples screened from both pregnant (60) and non-pregnant (60) women suspected of urinary tract infection, 21(35%) pregnant women were positive, 39(65%) were negative and 16(26.7%) non-pregnant women were positive, 44(73.3%) were negative. The study showed the prevalence of urinary tract infection of 21 (35%) and 16 (26.7%) among pregnant and non-pregnant women respectively, indicated that about 35% of pregnant women were at risk of development for acute episode of urinary tract infection during pregnancy that lack of proper treatment. In the present study the infection rate was higher between age group 23-27 years in both pregnant and non-pregnant women. According to this study, highest incidence of UTI was seen in third trimester 10 (47.6%), followed by second trimester 7 (33.3%) and least was seen in first 4 (19.0%). In the present research, the most frequent isolates were Staphylococcus aureus (45.9%), Escherichia coli (35.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (10.8%), Proteus mirabilis (5.4%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.7%).

Conclusion: Urinary tract infection appeared to be multifactorial. A screening for UTI in women especially pregnant women must be done to discover the infected cases, which could allow early treatment to avoid the complications. As such, strong personal hygiene is recommended since most of the causative organisms were of faecal origin as well as sound health education on preventive measures of the diseases should be provided by government so as to curve the menace of this deadly infection.