JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

YOUR DAI­LY HEALTH

What is a urinary tract infection (UTI)?

by

20120209

The uri­nary tract com­pris­es the kid­neys, ureters, blad­der, and ure­thra. A uri­nary tract in­fec­tion (UTI) is an in­fec­tion caused by bac­te­ria, fun­gi or par­a­sites in any of the struc­tures that com­prise the uri­nary tract. UTIs are com­mon, more com­mon in women than men, lead­ing to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 8.3 mil­lion doc­tor vis­its per year. Al­though some in­fec­tions go un­no­ticed, UTIs can cause prob­lems that range from dy­suria (pain and/or burn­ing when uri­nat­ing) to or­gan dam­age and even death.

The kid­neys are the ac­tive or­gans that, dur­ing their av­er­age pro­duc­tion of about 1.5 quarts of urine per day, func­tion to help keep elec­trolytes and flu­ids (for ex­am­ple, potas­si­um, sodi­um, wa­ter) in bal­ance, as­sist re­moval of waste prod­ucts (urea), and pro­duce a hor­mone that aids to form red blood cells. If kid­neys are in­jured or de­stroyed by in­fec­tion, these vi­tal func­tions can be dam­aged or lost. While some in­ves­ti­ga­tors state that UTIs are not trans­mit­ted from per­son to per­son, oth­er in­ves­ti­ga­tors dis­pute this and say UTIs may be con­ta­gious and rec­om­mend that sex part­ners avoid re­la­tions un­til the UTI has cleared. There is no dis­pute about UTIs caused by sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted dis­ease (STD) or­gan­isms; these in­fec­tions (gon­or­rhea, chlamy­dia) are eas­i­ly trans­mit­ted be­tween sex part­ners and are very con­ta­gious.

UTI caus­es and risk fac­tors

The most com­mon caus­es of UTI in­fec­tions are Es­cherichia coli bac­te­r­i­al strains that usu­al­ly in­hab­it the colon. How­ev­er, many oth­er bac­te­ria can oc­ca­sion­al­ly cause an in­fec­tion. There are many risk fac­tors for UTIs. In gen­er­al, any in­ter­rup­tion of the usu­al flow of urine is a risk fac­tor for a UTI. For ex­am­ple, kid­ney stones, ure­thral stric­tures, en­larged prostate. This is due in part to the flush­ing or wash-out ef­fect of flow­ing urine

Peo­ple who re­quire catheters have an in­creased risk (about 30 per cent of pa­tients with in­dwelling catheters get UTIs) as the catheter has none of the pro­tec­tive im­mune sys­tems to elim­i­nate bac­te­ria and of­fers a di­rect con­nec­tion to the blad­der.

There are re­ports that sug­gest that women who use a di­aphragm or who have part­ners that use con­doms with sper­mi­ci­dal foam are at in­creased risk for UTIs. In ad­di­tion, fe­males who be­come sex­u­al­ly ac­tive seem to have a high­er risk of UTI; some in­ves­ti­ga­tors term these UTIs as "hon­ey­moon cys­ti­tis." Men over 60 have a high­er risk for UTIs be­cause many men at or above that age de­vel­op en­larged prostates that may cause slow and in­com­plete blad­der emp­ty­ing. Oc­ca­sion­al­ly, peo­ple with bac­te­ria in the blood­stream have the in­fect­ing bac­te­ria lodge in the kid­ney. Sim­i­lar­ly, peo­ple with in­fect­ed ar­eas that are con­nect­ed to the uri­nary tract are more like­ly to get a UTI. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, pa­tients who un­der­go uro­log­ic surgery al­so have an in­creased risk of UTIs. Preg­nan­cy does not ap­par­ent­ly in­crease the risk of UTIs ac­cord­ing to some clin­i­cians; oth­ers think there is an in­creased risk be­tween weeks six through 26 of the preg­nan­cy. Pa­tients with chron­ic dis­eases such as di­a­bet­ics or those who are im­muno­sup­pressed (HIV or can­cer pa­tients) al­so are at high­er risk.

What are UTI symp­toms and signs?

The UTI symp­toms and signs may vary ac­cord­ing to age, sex, and lo­ca­tion of the in­fec­tion in the tract. Some in­di­vid­u­als will have no symp­toms or mild symp­toms and may clear the in­fec­tion in about two to five days. Many peo­ple will not spon­ta­neous­ly clear the in­fec­tion; some of the most fre­quent signs and symp­toms ex­pe­ri­enced by most pa­tients is a fre­quent urge to uri­nate, ac­com­pa­nied by pain or burn­ing on uri­na­tion. The urine of­ten ap­pears cloudy and oc­ca­sion­al­ly red­dish if blood is present. The urine may de­vel­op an un­pleas­ant odour. Women of­ten have low­er ab­dom­i­nal dis­com­fort or feel bloat­ed and ex­pe­ri­ence sen­sa­tions like their blad­der is full. Women may al­so com­plain of a vagi­nal dis­charge, es­pe­cial­ly if their ure­thra is in­fect­ed, or if they have an STD. Al­though men may com­plain of dy­suria, fre­quen­cy, and ur­gency, oth­er symp­toms may in­clude rec­tal, tes­tic­u­lar, pe­nile, or ab­dom­i­nal pain. Tod­dlers and chil­dren with UTIs of­ten show blood in the urine, ab­dom­i­nal pain, fever, and vom­it­ing along with pain and ur­gency with uri­na­tion. (med­i­cinenet.com)


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored