Abstract

Background & objectives: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) which unfortunately has no clear symptoms in many cases is the second prevalent infection among children after respiratory infection. This study carried out in order to determine the frequency of asymptomatic UTI among elementary school girls in one of Tehran's suburbs (Mahalat town). Methods: In a cross sectional study, all elementary school girls (n=1216) of study town who were between 6 to 11 years of age, were screened with urinary strip dipstick test method and urinary culture test was carried out on persons who had urinary PH> 7 and positive nitrite, as cases were doubtful to UTI. Afterwards, positive culture cases were referred to a urology specialist for investigating symptoms and, asymptomatic UTI samples were recognized. Results: Among 67 students who were doubtful to UTI (based on dipstick strip test), 14 cases out of (1.15 from 1216 samples), that is 1.15, were suffering from UTI. Regarding symptoms of UTI, just 35.72 of infected persons possessed at least one symptom of UTI and most of them that is 64.28, possessed asymptomatic UTI and the percentage of these people were obtained 0.74 for whole screened statistical society. Conclusions: Since asymptomatic UTI and its probable complications might be recurrent, screening in dipstick method which is effective, rapid and inexpensive is completely necessary to improve the level of public health especially for children.