Asymptomatic bacteriuria: Occurrence and antibiotic susceptibility profiles among students of a tertiary institution in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Asymptomatic bacteriuria, a form of urinary tract infections that involves isolation of a specified quantitative count of bacteria in an appropriately collected urine specimen obtained from a person without symptoms or signs referable to urinary infection is common, but the prevalence in population varies widely with age, sex and the presence of genitourinary abnormalities. This study therefore aimed at investigating the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among selected students of Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nigeria as well as the antibiotic resistance patterns of the bacterial isolates associated with the condition. Urine samples were collected from one hundred apparently healthy students and processed within two hours of collection. The isolates were identified by conventional biochemical tests while antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates were carried out according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results revealed 77% prevalence (49 females, 27 males) among the sample studied with the presence of Staphylococcal spp., Klebsiella spp., Citrobacter spp. and Bacillus spp. Staphylococcus aureus is the predominant species accounting for 54.5% of the isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility study revealed all the isolates to be multidrug resistant. However, resistance to ofloxacin by Gram-negative bacterial isolates was least while resistance to streptomycin by the Gram-positive isolates was least in this study. The study concluded that multidrug resistant bacteria can be associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria while the patients may not develop any sign or symptom referable to urinary tract infection.