Dipstick urinalysis and antibiogram of bacteria isolates from asymptomatic undergraduate male students

Objectives: The study aims to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in male students and evaluate the effectiveness of dipstick urinalysis in detecting bacteriuria. Material and Methods: A total of 312 undergraduate male students in the university across different departments within the age of 18–37 years old, who fulfilled the inclusive criteria for the study were sampled. Approximately 20–30 mL of midstream urine was collected from each participant in sterile, labeled containers, and transported to the laboratory within 2–4 h of collection. Dipstick urinalysis was carried out on each of the urine samples using Accu-Answer ® dipsticks according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Parameters measured included pH, protein, glucose, nitrites, urobilinogen, blood, ketone, bilirubin, and ascorbic acid. Urine samples were aseptically cultured on appropriate media to isolate bacterial strains and characterized them using standard microbiological and biochemical methods. The antibiotic susceptibility profile of the isolates was determined using the Kirby– Bauer disk diffusion method. Results: Results obtained from the dipstick urinalysis were recorded for each participant, and any abnormal findings flagged for further bacteriological analysis. A total of 164 bacterial isolates were obtain from the samples with 90 Staphylococcus aureus having a prevalence of 54.87%, followed by 39 Salmonella typhi having a prevalence of 23.78%, with 28 Escherichia coli and 7 Shigella dysenteriae having a prevalence of 17.07% and 4.26%, respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that all of the isolates were resistant to most of the antibiotics that they were tested with. S. aureus and Salmonella typhi strains which showed between 45.1–89.0% and 43.5–100% resistance to all the antibiotic disc tested, respectively. However, both E. coli and S. dysenteriae had the highest level of resistance with the majority of the antibiotics disc having 100%, aspect for few. Conclusion: The antibiotic resistance of these isolates calls for concern.