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Image / Editorial

Do You Suffer From Frequent UTI Infections? We’ve Got Bad News…


By Niamh ODonoghue
07th Mar 2017
Do You Suffer From Frequent UTI Infections? We’ve Got Bad News…

If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to land with a UTI you’ll know that they burn, itch, leave you feeling deflated and lethargic, and they can be incredibly painful (not to mention expensive to treat). Now there are fears that UTIs will become resistant to all antibiotics. ?


Don’t you just hate when it happens? You’re sitting there, working away and minding your own business when all of a sudden, as if a switch has been flicked, you’re suddenly doubled over with pain and stinging. Urinary Tract Infections, or UTIs, affect 1 out of every 2 women in the world and is caused by bacteria in the urethra ?? the tube?that transports urine from the bladder to the outside of the body – and if left untreated, can travel to the kidneys causing long-term damage.

There has been a lot of speculation over the years about what we can do to keep these painful at bay like using lady-friendly cleaning products, getting rid of stress from your life, keeping hydrated, drinking cranberry juice (by the bucket-load), and going the toilet after intercourse. Doctors were even confident that there would be a permanent cure within a few years.?But now trajectories have changed and doctors and scientists are more worried than ever about the future for UTI sufferers because it looks like they’re becoming increasingly antibiotic-resistant and difficult to treat, meaning that things are set to get worse for frequent UTI sufferers.

According to scientific journal?New Scientist, the WHO has published a list of bacteria that we desperately need antibiotics for. At the top is Escherichia coli, also known as E. Coli, the bacteria behind UTIs, which affects around 250 million people a year. According to the report, “functioning antibiotics make UTIs only a minor annoyance, but if antibiotics fail, the infection can spread into the kidneys and bloodstream, and even become life-threatening”, says Abdul Ghafur at the Apollo Specialty Hospital in Chennai, India, a leading expert on antibiotic resistance.?”There are few options for treating a UTI due to extensive drug-resistant bacteria. In severe cases, UTIs resistant to all antibiotics “do occur.”

So why not just make antibiotics?that kill E.Coli, you ask? Because the world is a cruel place, and money makes it so. Private pharmaceutical firms are charging billions to create new breeds of bacterial-killing drugs which means?that testing and production are a long way off. It’s thought that antibiotic resistance is the result of?farmers using a certain drug called Colistin as a growth promoter in livestock in India and China.

Maybe it’s all part of Trump’s’masterplan to cull all the women of the world before we have a chance to overthrow him? Then again, maybe not. But let’s blame him on our UTIs anyway.