UTI in pregnancy - challenge in era of antibiotic drug resistance

Urinary Tract Infections is one of the most common infections observed in clinical practice especially in pregnant women. This study was conducted on 500 pregnant women to identify the prevalence of symptomatic and asymptomatic UTI, their bacterial profile and antibiogram. A total of 151 pregnant women had significant bacteriuria and 79 of them were symptomatic while 72 were asymptomatic. E. coli was the predominant organism sensitive to mainly aminoglycosides like Gentamicin, Amikacin, Nitro furantoin , Amoxiclav. Increasing resistant pattern was observed for Cephalosporins, Ampicillin. The UTI was more prevalent in the third trimester in the patients rather than in the first and second. All the women were also tested for blood glucose levels and 45 of the 500 women were positive for gestational diabetes. But there was no significant difference in the type of bacteria in gestational diabetes mellitus. Neither was there any difference in the symptomatic or asymptomatic bacteriuria among GDM. As untreated cases of UTI in pregnant women may result in severe mortality in the mother and child, it is imperative to diagnose and treat it as early as possible.