Urinary Tract Infection in Children with Acute Glomerulonephritis in Kano

This is a prospective study of 47 cases of acute glomerunephritis seen in paediatric ward of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano over a 5year period; they were evaluated for prevalence of urinary tract infection, urine specimen were obtained by midstream urine following careful cleaning of the orifices with chlorhexidine. Urine was collected from children less than 2years by suprapubic aspiration. Urine culture specimen was collected in sterile bottles and was processed within 24hours of collection. Specimen was incubated on sheep agar for 48hours. Antibiotic sensitivity studies were done using disc diffusion technique. There were 25(53.2%) males and 22(46.8) females giving male to female ratio of 1.1:1. The mean age (+SD) of the children was 6.4 + 0.1years. The prevalence of urinary tract infection was 34%. Although the incidence of UTI was higher in females (41%) than in males (16%), the difference was not statistically significant (x2 = 2.2, P>0.05). Escherichia coli (62.5%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (25%) and Staphylococcus aureu s (12.5%) were the commonest bacterial isolates. These bacterial isolates demonstrated appreciable invitro sensitivity to ofloxacin, ceftriaxone and genticin. It is therefore important to screen for UTI in children presenting with glomerulonephritis.