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Background: Postpartum urinary Catheter-Related Infections (CRIs) are a significant cause of maternal sepsis. Several studies done have reported the presence of mixed populations of bacteria with a significant increase in Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) Enterobacteriaceae spps, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) bacteria in urine and blood cultures of catheterized patients despite the use of prophylactic antibiotics. This study aimed at determining the bacterial species diversity and susceptibility patterns of indwelling urinary catheters from postpartum mothers attending Mbale Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH)., Methods: A cross-sectional study employing quantitative and qualitative was carried out in MRRH among postpartum mothers with urinary catheters and their care-takers. The purposive non-random sampling strategy was used to collect data using an interviewer-administered questionnaire for the quantitative data collection and in-depth interviews for qualitative data collection. All the data collection tools used were developed, pretested and validated. At the point of de-catheterization, Catheter tips from enrolled participants were cut about 2-3cm below the balloon aseptically into test-tube containing peptone water, sonication technique employed, and incubation done 24hours then cultured to ensure phenotypic identification. An antibiotic sensitivity test was performed using the disc diffusion method following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Quantitative data collected was entered in Microsoft Excel and then exported to STATA14 for statistical analysis. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and organise qualitative data by an inductive coding method using Nvivo 12 software., Results: In this study, 208 postpartum mothers participated, the majority of whom were caesarean section mothers of age range 20-24 years and 17 care-takers with a median age of 32 years. The prevalence of catheter tips bacterial colonisation was 98% despite 88.5% of the participants being on broad-spectrum antibiotics. The average duration of catheterisation was 2 days. All bacteria isolates were potential uro-pathogens with a mean occurrence of 2 bacteria species in each urinary catheter tip. The rates of MDR to commonly used antibiotics were high. The urinary catheter size of greater than F14 and duration of catheterization greater than 2 days were significantly associated with the number of bacterial species isolated from each sample. The maintenance care and knowledge of care-urinary catheter care among the care-takers was found sub-optimal., Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of catheter colonisation with bacterial spps diversity averaging 2 spps per sample despite use of broad spectrum antibiotics. The MDR rates were high, which calls for routine culture and sensitivity. Health workers practicing obstetric medicine need to pay attention to catheter sizes during catheterisation and its duration. Health education should be part of antenatal and postnatal care education., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Uganda ranks third in the number of deaths attributable to malaria and has some of the highest recorded malaria transmission rates in the general population. Malaria in Pregnancy is associated with detrimental effects for the mother and unborn baby and these effects seem to have long term effects and consequences on the life of the baby. Despite the preventive measures put in place by the World Health Organization in antenatal care, the burden of malaria in pregnancy is still high. We determined the use of malaria preventive strategies during pregnancy and the presence of plasmodium infection, anemia, and low birth weight babies at delivery among parturient women at Mbale regional referral hospital in eastern Uganda., Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 210 women delivering at MRRH between July 2017 and January 2018. Information on demographics, antenatal care, and prevention practices was collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Maternal venous blood and cord blood samples were screened for Plasmodium infection by both microscopy of Giemsa-stained blood films and Plasmodium falciparum rapid diagnostic test (pf. HPR2 mRDT). Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was done on cord blood. The presence of anemia was determined by the use of an automated hemoglobin analyzer. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics., Results: Of the 210 women, 3 (1.4%) and 19(9.1%) tested positive for malaria by using Giemsa stained blood smear microscopy and malaria rapid diagnosticMRDT tests respectively. PCR detected 4(%) of Plasmodium in cord blood. Twenty-nine percent of the women had anaemia and 11 (5.2%) had low birth weight babies. Only 23.3% of the women received at least three doses of IPTp-SP and 57.9% reported sleeping under an Insecticide Treated Net the night before the survey. The women who reported sleeping under a mosquito net the previous night (OR 0.67, 95% CI: 0.24-1.86) and those who reported taking fansidar as a directly observed therapy (OR 0.31, 95% CI: 0.04-2.39) appeared to have few chances of getting plasmodium infection though the findings were not statistically significant., Conclusion: The effective use of malaria preventive strategies (IPT-SP and Insecticide Treated Nets) was generally low. Most of the women took less than three doses of SP and there was no strict adherence to the recommended directly observed therapy. The prevalence of Plasmodium infection during pregnancy was low though maternal anaemia and low birth weight were relatively high., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy (ASBP) is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes such as pyelonephritis, preterm or low birth weight delivery if untreated. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria, the isolated bacterial agents, and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns in pregnant women attending antenatal care at Mbale Hospital., Methods: This was a cross sectional study in which 587 pregnant women with no symptoms and signs of urinary tract infection were recruited from January to March 2019. Mid-stream clean catch urine samples were collected from the women using sterile containers. The urine samples were cultured using standard laboratory methods. The bacterial colonies were identified and antibiotic sensitivity was done using disc diffusion method. Chi squared tests and logistic regression were done to identify factors associated with asymptomatic bacteriuria. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: Out of the 587 pregnant women, 22 (3.75%) tested positive for asymptomatic bacteriuria. Women aged 20-24 years were less likely to have ASBP when compared to women aged less than 20 years (AOR = 0.14, 95%CI 0.02-0.95, P = 0.004). The most common isolates in descending order were E. coli (n = 13, 46.4%) and S.aureus (n = 9, 32.1%). Among the gram negative isolates, the highest sensitivity was to gentamycin (82.4%) and imipenem (82.4%). The gram positive isolates were sensitive to gentamycin (90.9%) followed by imipenem (81.8%). All the isolates were resistant to sulphamethoxazole with trimethoprim (100%). Multidrug resistance was 82.4% among gram negative isolates and 72.4% among the gram positive isolates., Conclusion: There was high resistance to the most commonly used antibiotics. There is need to do urine culture and sensitivity from women with ASBP so as to reduce the associated complications., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist