Urinary-tract Infections | SilverScorpio.Com

Early antibiotic use cuts death toll by HIV in Africa: Report

March 29, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Mon, Mar 29 10:30 AM

Preventive use of a cheap, commonly-prescribed antibiotic dramatically reduced the death toll among African patients whose immune systems had been ravaged by the AIDS virus, a media report said on Monday.

The drug, co-trimoxazole, marketed as Septrim, Bactrim and other brands, is widely used to combat pneumonia and ear and urinary tract infections and has also been found to have some antimalarial properties.

The investigation covered 3,179 people in Uganda and Zimbabwe who were started on a course of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and whose counts of CD4 immune cells were lower than 200 cells per microlitre.

Among those given co-trimoxazole alongside the anti-HIV drugs, the risk of dying during the first three months fell by 59 per cent compared to those who were not on the antibiotic.

At the 72-week stage, the reduced risk of mortality still persisted, although it evened out to 35 per cent overall.

In addition, co-trimoxazole cut frequency of malaria by 26 per cent.

These benefits, together with the very low side effects, suggest doctors in Africa should also prescribe co-trimoxazole at the early stage of treatment for HIV, says the report, published online by The Lancet.

“Co-trimoxazole prophylaxis (combined with anti-HIV treatment) is cost-effective and has a substantial public health effect,” says the study.
Agencies

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Vaccine for urinary tract infections comes closer to reality

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 18 (ANI): A simple vaccine may soon be available to protect against urinary tract infections, thanks to researchers from University of Michigan.

The study conducted over mice showed that the vaccine prevented infection and produced key types of immunity.

It alerts the immune system to iron receptors on the surface of Escherichia coli bacteria that perform a critical function allowing infection to spread.

Administered in the nose, it induces an immune response in the body’s mucosa, a first line of defense against invading pathogens. The response, also produced in mucosal tissue in the urinary tract, should help the body fight infection where it starts.

The researchers used novel systematic approach, combining bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics, to look for key parts of the bacterium that could be used in a vaccine to elicit an effective immune response.

The team, led by Dr. Harry L.T. Mobley, screened 5,379 possible bacterial proteins and identified three strong candidates to use in a vaccine to prime the body to fight E. coli.

Mobley’s team is currently testing more strains of E. coli obtained from women treated at U-M.

If the robust immunity achieved in mice can be reproduced in humans, it could be the first ever vaccine for urinary tract infections.

Most of the strains produce the same iron-related proteins that can be vaccine targets, an encouraging sign that the vaccine could work against many urinary tract infections.

The findings are published in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. (ANI)

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Cranberry juice fails to combat urinary tract infections

August 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 25 (ANI): Experts have expressed doubts over the use of cranberry juice as a preventative against urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Dr. Raz, Director of Infectious Diseases at the Technion School of Medicine in Israel, said that the present clinical evidence for using cranberry juice and related products to fight the common ailment was ‘unsatisfactory and inconclusive’.

Raz, a member of F1000 Medicine, along with his associate Faculty Member, Hana Edelstein, suggested that “cranberry should no longer be considered as an effective [preventative] for recurrent UTIs.”

The boffins explained that it was difficult to point out a single compound from the hundreds in cranberry to be held responsible for any therapeutic effect, creating a shadow of doubt over its adoption.

Raz and Edelstein also warned that cranberry could also interact badly with other medicines such as Warfarin, commonly used to treat heart disease. (ANI)

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Findings on how bladder cells detect bacteria may help prevent urinary tract infections

August 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 21 (ANI): Researchers at Duke University Medical Center may be close to devising a new way to stop or prevent the urinary tract infections (UTIs), for they have discovered how cells within the bladder are able to sense the presence of E. coli bacteria hiding within their compartments.

They think that knowing how the bladder’s own cells sense the bacteria, and what they do to expel them, can prove helpful in enabling the bladder to protect itself.

Soman Abraham, a professor of pathology at Duke, believes that new treatments based on the research team’s findings may be able to tackle antibiotic-resistant UTIs, and perhaps even bacterial infections in other parts of the body.

The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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Sexual activity, drinking ‘ups college-women’s urinary tract infections risk’

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

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Washington, Apr 27 (ANI): College-aged women, who indulge in increased sexual activity and alcohol consumption, are more likely to develop urinary tract infections (UTIs), according to a new study./pp
The researchers advised that the college-aged women experiencing urinary frequency or urgency should seek medical care to treat what may be their first urinary tract infection (UTI)./pp
For the study, the researchers analysed 181 women with their first UTI who presented to the student health care facility at the University of Florida, from July 2001 through April 2005. /pp
The control group consisted of 80 women attending the clinic without a UTI. /pp
A clinic nurse administered a survey that addressed lifestyle habits and dietary intake. /pp
The findings revealed that frequency and urgency were the most common symptom, and that UTIs were most commonly found in women who had increased sexual activity and recent alcohol consumption. /pp
The use of sanitary napkins during menstruation also increased the risk for a first-time UTI. /pp
Also, the researchers highlighted that hesitatin to urinate, direction of wiping and the use of tampons did not appear to correlate with increased UTI risk./pp
Co-existing chlamydia, gonorrhea and yeast infections did not contribute significantly to urinary symptoms. /pp
If you are experiencing urinary frequency and urgency, you should seek medical attention, said Anthony Y. Smith, MD, an AUA spokesman. /pp
He added: A woman experiencing her first UTI might not recognize these symptoms immediately. But, medical attention is necessary because UTIs can lead to kidney infection and even sepsis. So, it is important for women who notice these symptoms to seek medical attention./pp
The study was presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). (ANI)/p

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Obesity ‘raises urinary tract infections risk’

April 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 27 (ANI): A new study has shown that obesity is associated with a higher risk of urinary tract infections (UTI).

To identify whether obesity is associated with a UTI diagnosis, Baltimore researchers evaluated insurance claims of 95,962 subjects over a five-year period (from 2002 through 2006).

They found that, as BMI increased, the odds of being diagnosed with a UTI increased as well.

This association was strongest for morbidly obese patients.

“The effect of the obesity epidemic in the United States transcends any one medical specialty or condition,” said Anthony Y. Smith, MD, an AUA spokesman.

“Patients with elevated body mass index should be vigilant about urologic health because even the most simple of urinary tract infections can be deadly if left untreated,” he added.

The study was presented at the 104th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). (ANI)

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How cranberry helps prevent urinary tract infections

March 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 10 (ANI): Chemicals present in cranberries prevent infection-causing bacteria from attaching to the cells that line the urinary tract, says a new study.

According to a report published in Journal of Medicinal Food, chemicals found in cranberry products called proanthocyanidins (PACs) prevent E. coli from adhering to these urinary tract epithelial cells by affecting the surface properties of the bacteria.

To reach the conclusion, Paola Pinzsn-Arango, Yatao Liu, and Terri Camesano, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Massachusetts, exposed E. coli grown in culture to either light cranberry juice cocktail or cranberry PACs and measured the adhesion forces between the bacteria and a silicon surface using atomic force microscopy.

They demonstrated that the longer the bacteria were exposed to either the cranberry juice or the PACS the greater the decrease in bacterial attachment. In the article entitled, “Role of Cranberry on Bacterial Adhesion Forces and Implications for Escherichia coli-Uroepithelial Cell Attachment,” the authors also concluded that this effect was reversible, and that bacteria regrown in an environment without cranberry juice or PACS regained the ability to attach to the model surface.

“Cranberries, one of only three species of fruits native to North America, has a long history of medicinal food use. Native Americans used the fruit for the treatment of bladder and kidney ailments hundreds of years ago. The article by Camesano and co-workers is a milestone in the understanding of its mechanism of action,” says Sheldon S. Hendler, PhD, MD, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, and Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. (ANI)

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Old blood transfusion likely to cause health problems

October 31, 2008 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Though the FDA specifications for transfusion of blood permit the use of 42 days old blood but a latest research shows that patients given 29 days or longer stored blood transfusions were twice likely to get hospital- acquired infections.

The patients become prone to urinary-tract infections, pneumonia and infections associated with intravenous lines.

“We’re not talking about hepatitis, HIV or other things that are transmitted in the transfused blood, but an increased susceptibility to infection as a result of the transfusion,” Dr. David Gerber of Cooper University Hospital, one of the researchers, told during an interview.

“There are significant policy implications for this. Transfusion is still an important medical practice,” Gerber added.
It’s not the blood that gets infected but the stored blood releases chemical agents called cytokines which affect the recipients’ immune systems. This makes them more susceptible to infections as per Dr. Raquel Nahra of Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

At the same time many experts fear that if new regulations regarding blood transfusion are implemented less blood will be available. This in itself would create problems for patients.

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: hepatitis, HIV, immune systems, less blood, pneumonia, Regional Medical Center, urinary-tract infections