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a t hird (33 .9%) of a l l sUbjects s-een a t follow-up. Th e
proportion of all t he i nfective complications att ributable t o
t he above four types of disease we r e as f ollows : UGTI ( 45 .4%),
LGTI (36.1%), urinar y tract i nfection (13 . 2%) and mas titis
(3 .3%) •
This pattern of i nfections differs markedl y from that
reported by Sweet and Ledger ( 1973 ) in t h e United states ( 4 5 ) ,
and also by ot he r a ut h or s [43]. In t his study sam ple
episiotomy and pe rineal tear wound infection occurred to a far
greater extent (38%), t han tha t obs e r ved in the western
c ommun i t i e s ( 1 -5%) [ 4 J } This i n f ec t i ous complication is
clearly a more common postpartum complication in this
population.
uri nary tract intection I
Acute urinary tract infection i n this sample occurr ed to
a much lower pz-opo z-t.Lc n tha n has been r e ported in t he wes tern
world [43,45] . Th i s differe nc e i n t he urinary t r act infection
rates howe ve z , may be e xplained by the fact that in this stUdy
l a boratory investigation was not used in the d i agn os i s o f the
problem, a s i s usual in the developed world, a nd t herefore a
l e s s acourate identificat ion of t his disorder cou l d ha ve
occurred i n this stUdy. This argument i s more l i kely t o be
true i f we also cons i d e r t hat complaints of dysur ia o c c urred
r elat ively frequently (26%) in s tudy SUbj ects an d t hat