Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common problem in women at all stages of life; this is particularly true of pregnant women. Women are anatomically predisposed to UTIs because of their shorter urethra and the proximity of the urethra to the anus and vagina. UTIs are an especially important topic in pregnancy, as this may cause complications such as pyelonephritis, hypertensive disease of pregnancy, anemia, chronic renal failure, premature delivery and fetal mortality. Knowledge about the type of pathogens responsible for urinary tract infections and their resistance patterns may help the clinician to choose the correct empirical treatment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the etiologic agents of UTI and to determine the patterns of antimicrobial drug susceptibility among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic. Retrospective analysis was carried out for 180 mid-stream urine specimens processed for culture and antimicrobial drug susceptibility testing between January and December 2010. Significant bacteriuria (cultures with > 105 colony forming units (cfu) of bacteria/mL of urine) was found in 14/180 (7.7%) of the urine specimens. Gram-negative bacteria were more prevalent (78.56%) than Gram-positive bacteria (21.42%). Of the 14 isolates, the most commonly isolated bacteria were Escherichia coli 8 (57.14%), Klebsiella spp 2 (14.28%), Proteus species1 (7.14%), coagulase negative Staphylococcus 2 (14.28%) and Staphylococcus aureus 1 (7.14%) . The isolated uropathogens showed resistant to ampicillin, co-trimoxazole , ciprofloxacin , ceftazidime and sensitive to nitrofurantoin cephotaxime. In conclusion, E coli was found to be the common cause of UTI among the pregnant women. The presence of bacterial isolates with very high resistance to the commonly prescribed drugs leaves the clinicians with very few alternative options of drugs for the treatment of UTIs. So Culture and sensitivity of the isolates from urine samples should be done as a routine before advocating the therapy.
