eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal 0974-6242 2015-04-27 6 1 01 07 2581 article Hani S. Faidah 1 Ahmed M. Ashshi 2 Ghada A. Abou El-Ella 2 Ahmad K. Al-Ghamdi 3 Amr M. Mohamed 2 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Urinary tract infection represents a serious health problem in pregnant women. Scarce information is available about the profile of urinary tract infections among pregnant women in Makkah, KSA. The aim of the current study was to study the prevalence of UTI among pregnant women in Makkah, KSA and to investigate the most frequent causative agents and drug resistance profiles associated with such infections. A total of 200 pregnant women that visited maternity and children hospital in makkah were investigated. Personal data as well as medical history were collected using a well structured questionnaire. Midstream clean catch urine samples for urinalysis, and urine culture were collected from all investigated cases. The results revealed that 20% of investigated pregnant women were positive for UTI (12% with symptomatic UTI and 8% were asymptomatic). Escherichia coli was the most frequently isolated bacterial agent (25%) from both symptomatic and asymptomatic bacteriuria. Amoxicillin, cefoxitin, celtaxidime, fusidic acid, norfloxacin, ofloxzcin and penicillin showed the least resistance frequency (2.6%). In conclusion, high rate of UTI infection (20%) was recorded among pregnant women with E. coli being the most frequently encountered causative agent. Although symptoms are good markers of UTI during pregnancy, special care has to be directed towards asymptomatic cases. Finally, Amoxicillin, cefoxitin, celtaxidime, norflaoacin, penicillin and fusidic acid are the most useful antibiotics for treatment of UTI as they were able to inhibit most of the currently isolated UTI pathogens https://biomedpharmajournal.org/vol6no1/urinary-tract-infections-among-pregnant-women-in-makkah-saudi-arabia/ UTI Pregnant women Makkah