Abstract

Infections of the urinary tract are important part of infectious diseases that mainly involve bacteria. In parasite endemic areas, bacterial and parasitic co-infections may occur, however in Saint-Louis region which is a Schistosoma-endemic area, little is known about this association. Here this study aim to investigate the spectrum of bacterial and parasitic urinary infections as well as co-infections with both species. Concordantly to the current algorithm at the biomedical laboratory at Saint Louis Hospital, bacterial and parasitic investigation has been performed using the conventional method of bacteriological and parasitological examination of urine. Data were collected from register records from 2000 to 2010, recorded and analysed using Epi Info 7.  17107 urines samples were recorded and among which, 2352 (14%) were positive bacterial cultures including mainly Escherichia coli (54%) and Klebsiella spp (19%). Seven hundred and forty-three parasites have been identified including Trichomonas vaginalis (64%), Schistosoma haematobium (34%) and Schistosoma mansoni (2%). Both parasites and bacteria were found in 55 samples with T. vaginalis/E. coli (79%) as main combination, followed by T. vaginalis /Klebsiella spp. (11%). Regarding S. haematobium, it was found to be associated with E. coli in 7 samples and Klebsiella spp. in 4 samples. In the region of Saint-Louis, the urinary tract infections are dominated by bacterial infections including mainly E. coli and Klebsiella spp and may, for lesser extent, be caused by Schistosoma haematobium and Trichomonas vaginalis. Thus, the evaluation of the impact bacterial and parasitic co-infection in the urinary tract should have a particular interest especially in Schistosoma endemic area and need further study to better understand the potential interactions.

Key words: Urines, bacteria, parasites, co-infection, Saint-Louis, Senegal.