Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the most common bacterial infections during pregnancy and these infections. Untreated UTI can be associated with serious obstetric complications. This cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of UTI among symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women attending Bugando Medical centre (BMC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. A total of 247 pregnant women were enrolled, of these 78 (31.5%) were symptomatic and 169 (68.4%) asymptomatic. UTI was diagnosed using mid stream urine (MSU) culture on standard culture media and urinalysis was done using rapid dip stick. The prevalence of bacteriuria among symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women were 17.9% and 13.0% respectively, with no signifi cant difference between the two groups (p= 0.307). Using univariate analysis there was no association of parity (p=0.825), gestational age (p=0.173), education (p=0.615), age (p=0.211) and marital status (p=0.949) with bacteriuria. The sensitivity and specifi city of urine dipstick was 38.9% and 86.7% respectively. Escherichia coli (47.2%) and Enterococcus spp (22.2%) were the most commonly recovered pathogens. The rate of resistance of Escherichia coli to ampicillin, tetracycline, sulfamethaxazole/trimethoprim, gentamicin, ciprofl oxacin, nitrofurantoin, ceftriaxone, and imipenem were 53%, 58.8%, 64.7%, 5.9%, 11.8%, 5.9%, 29.4% and 0%, respectively. In conclusion, asymptomatic bacteriuria among pregnant women is prevalent in our setting and majority of Escherichia coli are resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, SXT and ceftriaxone. Due to low sensitivity of rapid dip stick, routine urine culture and susceptibility testing is recommended to all pregnant women at booking.

Objectives. As part of a community-based reproductive health project in rural Tanzania, a maternal and perinatal health care surveillance system was established to monitor pregnancy outcomes.This report presents preliminary results.Methods. Village health workers were trained to collect data during health education visits to pregnant and postpartum women. Maternal and fetal or infant survival or deaths were tracked on a community monitoring board.Results. Among 904 pregnancies, the fetoneonatal mortality rate was 69.4 deaths per 1000 live births and fetal deaths; 4 maternal deaths occurred. Intrapartum and early neonatal deaths of infants with birthweights of 1500 g or greater represented a large proportion of deaths.Conclusions. These preliminary results will be used to prioritize project interventions, including increasing access to skilled delivery care. (Am J Public Health. 2001;91:1636-1640

Minimal access surgery is increasingly becoming the preferred approach to surgical treatment. Experience in the last 15 to 20 years has established the efficacy and indeed safety of laparoscopic surgery in general surgical and gynecologic practice.Laparoscopic treatment in acute gynecologic emergencies raises questions of safety and feasibility when compared to open laparotomy.The objective of this study was to review the literature on the use of laparoscopy in the treatment of gynecologic emergencies so as to determine its role in current and future practice.The findings of this study indicate that laparoscopic surgery for gynecologic emergencies is feasible and safe. Further studies are needed to establish the safety of laparoscopic surgery for nonobstetric emergencies in late pregnancy.