Studies on Symptomatic Urinary Tract Infection and Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in a University Community

The research was to investigate the bacteria associated with symptomatic (urinary tracts infection) and asymptomatic bacteriuria in the University of Uyo, Nigeria. A total of 100 mid-stream urine samples were collected and analyzed. Seventy-six percentage of the total urine samples screened were found to have significant bacteriuria, out of which a total of 120 isolates were obtained while 24% of the samples analysed showed no significant bacteriuria. Bacterial proximate composition revealed the presence of Escherichia coli (41.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (16.7%), Klebsiella spp. (8.3%), Streptococcus faecalis (6.7%), Proteus spp. (6.7%), Pseudomonas spp (6.7%), Aerobacter aerogenes (6.7%), S. saprophyticus (5.0%), and Nocardia spp. (1.7%). These isolates principally constituted the total heterotrophic bacterial counts which ranged from 2.4 x 10(6)cfu/ml to 15.8 x 10(6)cfu/ml observed in the urine samples. Samples obtained from volunteers with age range 21 - 25years had the highest percentage (80.8%) of symptomatic bacteriuria and 15 - 20years had the least percentage of infection. More female individuals were affected than male (p < 0.05) with a total of 78 (65.0%) of the isolates from female individuals. Of these, 36 (30.0%) were identified as Escherichia coli. The Antibiotic profile showed that between 18.8% and 34.4% of the isolates were susceptible to gentamycin, nalidixic acid, erythromycin and nitrofurantoin; 28.6% showed intermediate profile to erythromycin while 92.9% to 100% of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline, colistin, cotrimoxazole, cloxacillin, penicillin, ampicillin and chloramphenicol. A range of 16.7% to 50% multidrug resistant and beta lactamase producing isolates were cured of their plasmids and became susceptible to tetracycline, penicillin and ampicillin. The presence of higher significant asymptomatic bacteriuria might be a result of unhygienic living and sexual habit.