Prevalence of UTI in Febrile Children aged lessthan Five Years

Abstract

Introduction:Fever is often the only symptom in children with Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). Pyelonephritis and progressive renal damage can be caused by urinary tract infection, Which is not treated. Hence this study was done to assess the prevalence of urinary tract infection in febrile children attending to a tertiary care centre.Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the department of paediatrics in a tertiary care hospital on 370 children between the ages of 1 month to 5 years. Routine blood counts, urine analysis, was done, and those are showing pus cells > 5 per HPF (pyuria) in centrifuged urine sample were considered for urine culture sensitivity. A diagnosis of urinary tract infection was made with a positive urine culture. Data were entered  in Microsoft Excel, and analysis was carried out with IBM SPSS version 22. P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: 44.59% of the study subjects were boys. The overall prevalence of urinary tract infection was 3.5% in febrile children between1 month to 5 years. It was 4.1% in children <2 years and 7% in children <1 year of age. Among pyuric patients, (n=128) 27% were culture positive. Escherichia coli(69%) was the most common organism identified culture-positive cases.Conclusions: The prevalence of urinary tract infection was high in infants. In all children presenting with fever, the possibility of urinary tract infection must be kept in mind, and a sample of urine must be collected for urine microscopy and urine culture.

Keywords: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), Febrile children, Infant, Urine culture, Pyuria, Pyelonephritis, Pediatrics.