Abstract:
Background: Prevalence of Asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy
ranges from 2.0% to 23.9% and if not attended about 20% to 40% of
these will develop symptomatic disease. None of various screening
methods have been found to have satisfactory sensitivity and specificity.
Objective: To determine the reliability of nitrite reductase and leucocyte
esterase methods in screening for ABU in pregnant women.
Settings: Muhimbili National Hospital - Antenatal clinic
Study design: Cross sectional
Population: Pregnant women attending antenatal clinic.
Methods: Systematic sampling was used and morning unne samples
were screened using Dipstick methods. Bacterial culture and
antimicrobial susceptibility was done. Analysis was done using EPI info
version six and specificity and sensitivity were calculated.
Results: The prevalence of ABU was 23.0 %. Both nitrite reductase and
leucocyte esterase tests had poor sensitivity ranging from 10.5% to
65.8%. Klebsiella spp and E.coli were the commonest microorganisms
comprising 44.8% and 23.2% respectively.
Conclusion: ABU represents a considerable public health problem
among pregnant women attending MNH-ANC and leucocyte esterase and
nitrite reductase tests are not ideal for screening
Recommendation: There is a need to look for other screening tests.