Article Sidebar
DOI:
10.4314/gmj.v49i3.5Keywords:
Article Details
Articles published in the Ghana Medical Journal may not be published elsewhere without the consent of the publishers. Request for consent for reproduction of material published in the Ghana Medical Journal should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. The publisher of this Journal reserves the right of copyright of all articles published in the Journal. It should also be understood by all authors that articles approved for publication in the journal are also deemed for publication online by the publisher.
Ghana Medical Journal is an Open Access journal and applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on the Creative Commons website (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) to articles and other content published in the Journal.
Main Article Content
Prevalence and associated risk factors of asymptomatic bacteriuria in ante-natal clients in a large teaching hospital in Ghana
Abstract
Introduction: Asymptomatic bacteriuria, the presence of bacteria in urine without symptoms of acute urinary tract infection, predisposes pregnant women to the development of urinary tract infections and pyelonephritis, with an attendant pregnancy related complications.
Objective: To measure the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among ante-natal clients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana and its’ associated risk factors.
Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 274 antenatal clients was conducted over a period of 4 weeks. A face to face questionnaire was completed and midstream urine collected for culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
Results: The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was 5.5%. It was associated with sexual activity during pregnancy (Fisher’s Exact 5.871, p-value 0.0135), but not with sexual frequency. There were no significant associations with educational status, parity, gestational age, marital status and the number of foetuses carried. The commonest organism isolated was Enterococcus spp (26.7%) although the enterobacteriaceae formed the majority of isolated organisms (46.7%). Nitrofurantoin was the antibiotic with the highest sensitivity to all the isolated organisms.
Conclusions: The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among ante-natal clients at this large teaching hospital in Ghana is 5.5%, which is lower than what has been found in other African settings. Enterococcus spp was the commonest causative organism. However, due to the complications associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria, a policy to screen and treat- all pregnant women attending the hospital, is worth considering.
Key words: Asymptomatic bacteriuria, ante-natal clients, antibiotic sensitivity, tertiary hospital, Ghana
