Prevalence of UTI among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics in primary health care centres

ABSTRACT

Estimate the prevalence of urinary tract infection in pregnancy in Bahrain and describe the associated risk factors. Descriptive cross-sectional study during the period of one year from 1 st of February 2002 till 31 st of January 2003. All primary health care centers in Bahrain. 343 cases of pregnant women with UTI. The prevalence of UTI in pregnant women was 3.2%. 61.2% of them had asymptomatic bacteriuria. For the group studied 60.1% were in low socioeconomic class. On reviewing their history, 19.9% of the ladies had history of previous UTI, 10.6% of them were sickle cell trait and 2.2% had B- thalasimia minor. The prevalence of anemia among the study group was 32.7%. The most common organism was E coli [53.4%], the second most common organism was Beta hemolytic streptococci which constitute [22.2%] of the cases. The antibiotic which was sensitive to most organisms was Cifuroxime [Zinnat] [97.2%]. The relatively high prevalence of ASB during pregnancy justify screening pregnant women for bacteriuria at 12-16 weeks of gestation