The isolation and identification of bacteria causing urinary tract infection in pregnant women and the identification of antibiotic resistance genes by molecular technique in Southern Iraq

In this thesis, it was aimed to identify the causative agents of UTIs in pregnant women with vitek 2 and multiplex PCR, to determine the antibiotic resistance status of isolates, to investigate the presence of some resistance genes, and to perform sequence analyzes of mecA and CTX-M genes. For this purpose, urine samples were taken from 320 pregnant women with urinary tract infection (UTI) in private laboratories and Al-Rifai Hospital in Dhi Qar, Southern Iraq, between September 2021 and February 2022. The ages of the patients ranged from 18 to 47. While bacterial growth was positive in 50 (15.6%) of 320 urine samples, no bacterial growth was observed in 270 (84.4%) samples. Traditional morphological and biochemical tests and the VITEK2 system were used to identify bacteria from the samples. The frequency of bacterial pathogens causing UTI; Escherichia coli 18 (36%), Staphylococcus aureus 12 (24%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 9 (18%), Proteus mirabilis 6 (12%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 5 (10%) were detected. Antibiotic susceptibility of bacterial isolates included in this study; benzyl penicillin and oxacillin (100%), erythromycin (88.8%), sulfamethoxazole (80.55%), levofloxacin (72.22%), fusdic acid (65.55%), gentamicin (66.7%) and amoxicillin (63.2%) was determined. Detection of TEM, SHV, AMpC mecA and CTX-M resistance genes was done using PCR technique. Bacterial isolates -TEM -28 (73.6%), SHV 1 (2.6%), CTX-M- 26 (68.4%), AmpC-9 (23.6%) and mecA gene-12 (%) 100) was found. This study shows that urine culture and susceptibility testing is needed to evaluate urinary tract infection (UTI) among pregnant women and to detect resistant bacteria such as ESBL, and it is important for these patients to receive safe and effective treatment in the treatment of this disease.