Uropathogenic Analysis and Commonly Used Drug Sensitivity Patterns of the Pathogens in Dhaka City, Bangladesh.

Aims: Human urinary tract infections (UTI) are very common in Bangladesh. The objectives of the current study are to identify the uropathogenic agents infecting males and females of different age groups, and commonly used drugs sensitivity profiles. Study Design: A total of 980 urine samples from both sex and different age groups, were collected for the study. Chemical analyses of the samples were done by Dipstick method. Cultural, microscopic and biochemical analyses were done to identify the isolates. Finally antibiotic sensitivity was tested against conventionally used antibiotics. Place and Duration of Study: All the samples were collected from patients of both indoor patient department (IPD) and outdoor patient department (OPD) in the Laboratory Medicine Department, United Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh between January 2012 and May 2012 following published procedures. Results: Only 29.6% of the urine samples yielded positive culture. UTI showed more prevalence among female than male. Female belonging to the age group of 41-50 years were detected as high risk groups for UTI. Most common Gram negative isolates were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp., Candida sp., Pseudomonas sp., Proteus sp., and Acinetobacter baumannii. Gram positive bacteria comprised Enterococcus sp. and non-hemolytic Streptococci. Like most of the previous reports, E. coli was predominant, which is also corroborated in this study. However, the sensitivity pattern of the organisms differed from the previous studies. Conclusion: The isolates were found resistant to most common oral antibiotics used, such as cotrimoxazole, nitrofurantoin, and nalidixic acid. This finding, however, need further work to validate reliability.

Non-Cereal Food Consumption, Food Insecurity and Nutritional Status of Children and Mothers: A Case Study in Bangladesh

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of food insecurity derived from non-cereal food consumption on nutritional status of children and mothers in a poverty-prone region in Bangladesh. Methods: Data from the Bangladesh Nutritional Surveillance Project, 2005 of Helen Keller International were used to relate non-cereal food consumption and household food insecurity to nutritional status of children and their mothers. Multiple regressions were used to determine the association between the nutritional outcomes and the explanatory variables. In the case of binary and multi-level outcomes, logistic regressions were used as well. Results: Non-cereal dietary diversity was found to have little predictive power on BMI and MUAC of mothers and on the nutritional status of the children. Maternal education is strongly associated with mothers’ and children’s nutritional status. Conclusion: Dietary diversity based on non-cereal food consumption can be a useful tool to investigate the nutritional status of poor households, but more studies are needed to verify these findings.