Antibiotic Sensitivity of Microbial Isolates Causing Asymptomatic Bacteriuria During Pregnancy, in General Heet Hospital, Western Iraq

Abstract

The goal of this work is to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) during pregnancy, identify the causative organisms, and analyze the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates. This study was conducted on 139 pregnant women in Iraq. Clinically, all the women had no symptoms of a urinary tract infection. Clean catch midstream urine samples were collected from all patients. The microscopic and cultural methods were used to check all urine samples. Identification of isolates was performed using the VITEK 2 system and antibiotic sensitivity was assessed using the same technique. The results showed that 70 (50.36%) of the 139 pregnant women tested positive for ASB. The age group of 15-20 years had the highest prevalence (60.86%) of ASB. The most common etiological agent causing infections among pregnant women was Staphylococcus species (66.65%), followed by Escherichia coli (E. coli) (10.52%), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) (8.77%). Also, the susceptibility pattern of E. coli and K. pneumoniae showed that most of the isolates were highly sensitive (100%) to piperacillin/tazobactam, ertapenem, imipenem, amikacin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and tigecyclin. E. coli isolates were highly sensitive to cefoxitin (100%). Coliforms (E. coli and K. pneumoniae ) were highly resistant to β-lactams, including : ampicillin (100%), ceftazidime (100%), cefazolin (100%), ceftriaxone (100%), and ciprofloxacin (100%). Based on the resistance profiles, all isolates of K. pneumoniae and E. coli (100%) were extended-spectrum beta-actamase producers.

Keywords

• antibiotic susceptibility test
• asymptomatic bacteriuria
• antibacterial agent
• urinary tract infection
• pregnancy