Epidemiological Studies of Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) among Post-menopausal Women in Uyo Metropolis, South-South, Nigeria.

Cross-sectional studies of UTI among post menopausal women were carried out between January and June, 2009 using standard microbiological techniques. The result obtained showed that 42 (39.6%) out of 106 postmenopausal women had urinary tract infections with highest prevalence among women aged 56-60 and lowest among those aged ≥ 61 . Microscopic examinations of forty-two (42) mid-stream urine samples revealed the presence of 13(30.9%) epithelial cells, 5 (11.9%) phosphate crystals, 16 (38.1%) pus cell , 9 (21.4%) yeast cells, 7(16.7%) red blood cells and eggs of Schistoma haematobium 2(4.8%). Bacteria isolated were: Escherichia coli 20 (25.3%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus 16 (20.3%), Pseudomonas aureginosa 10 (12.7%), Coagulase negative Staphylococcus spp 9 (11.4%), Streptococcus pyogenes 6 (7.6%), Serratia marcescens 6 (7.6%), Enterobacter spp 5 (6.3%). Klebsiella spp. 4 (5.1%) and Enterococcus faecalis 3(3.8%). E. coli showed low percentage resistance to ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime and ceftriaxone. Enterobacter spp. were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and cotrimoxazole in 80%, respectively. Between 60-80% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter spp were susceptible to all the tested antibiotics, while 4(66.7%) Streptococcus pyogenes, 6 (66.7%) CON-Staphylococcus spp and 4(66.7%) Serratia marcescens were sensitive to ceftazidime. All the Enterococcus faecalis and Klebsiella spp isolated were sensitive to ciprofloxacin. The phenotypic determination identified a low ESβL rate of 28.8 % (13 of 45 isolates). ESBLs were detected among the following species: 5 Escherichia coli (25.0%), 3 Pseudomonas spp (30.0%), 1 Klebsiella spp (25.0%), Serratia marcescens2 (33.3%) and Enterobacter spp. 2 (40.0%). The result also showed that 18.9 % of the bacteria were resistant to at least 3 antibiotics with (MAR) index ranging from 0.2 to 0.8. The results obtained in this study are statistically significant (p≤0.05). However, continuous surveillance to monitor the prevalence of UTI and antimicrobial resistance among post menopausal women is overwhelmingly necessary.