Prevalence of Asymptomatic Bacteriuria among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Clinics in Ovia North East Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria

Background and Objective: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is bacteria in the properly collected urine of a patient, leading to a urinary tract infection with no symptoms. Asymptomatic bacteriuria is a common complication in clinical practice with an increasing prevalence due to increase of age. The present study investigated the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women receiving antenatal care in Ovia North East Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total of 201 urine samples were collected randomly from pregnant women at Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital, Okha Maternity and Usen General Hospital in in Ovia North East Local Government Area. The bacteria isolation was carried out using the pour plate technique. The bacteria identification was conducted by gram staining and biochemical tests and the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the bacterial isolates was determined by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. Results: Eighty-one of the subjects had significant bacteriuria, with a prevalence of 40.3 %. The bacteria isolated in the samples were Streptococcus, Proteus, Klebsiella and Micrococcus species as well as Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Streptococcus spp. occurred more frequently (42.0 %) while S. aureus had the lowest frequency of occurrence (2.5 %) in the samples. The infection was most prevalent among women aged between 28 and 37 years (74.5 %). Pregnant women in their third trimester in this study had the highest prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria (55.2 %). Ciprofloxacin was found to be the most effective antibiotic against the urinary isolates.  Conclusion: Pregnancy promotes the progression from symptomatic to asymptomatic bacteriuria with its consequences such as pyelonephritis and increased fetal mortality. Therefore, routine culture test should be carried out for all antenatal women to detect asymptomatic bacteriuria and all positive cases should be treated with appropriate antibiotic therapy to prevent any obstetric complications which are associated with pregnancy.