What Antibiotics Are Used To Treat Bacterial Utis
Once your physician has determined the location of your UTI and whether its complicated, he or she will likely suggest an antibiotic for treatment. Infections in the lower urinary tract are typically treated with oral medication , while upper-tract UTIs usually merit intravenous antibiotics.
All antibiotics require a prescription. This is, in part, to avoid the potential for antibiotic misuse, which can result in your body forming a dangerous resistance to antibiotics. Its also a way to ensure that you visit a healthcare provider when you have symptoms. If left untreated, even an uncomfortable but harmless lower-tract UTI can become more severe, particularly if its allowed to travel further up the urethra and take up residence in your kidneys.
Which Antibiotic Will Work Best
Your doctor will take a urine sample to confirm that you have a UTI. Then the lab will grow the germs in a dish for a couple of days to find out which type of bacteria you have. This is called a culture. Itâll tell your doctor what type of germs caused your infection. Theyâll likely prescribe one of the following antibiotics to treat it before the culture comes back:
Which medication and dose you get depends on whether your infection is complicated or uncomplicated.
âUncomplicatedâ means your urinary tract is normal. âComplicatedâ means you have a disease or problem with your urinary tract. You could have a narrowing of your ureters, which are the tubes that carry urine from your kidneys to your bladder, a narrowing in the urethra which transports urine from the bladder out of the body, or, you might have a blockage like a kidney stone or an enlarged prostate . It’s also possible you have a urinary fistula or a bladder diverticulum.
To treat a complicated infection, your doctor might prescribe a higher dose of antibiotics. If your UTI is severe or the infection is in your kidneys, you might need to be treated in a hospital or doctor’s office with high-dose antibiotics you get through an IV.
Your doctor will also consider these factors when choosing an antibiotic:
- Are you over age 65?
- Are you allergic to any antibiotics?
- Have you had any side effects from antibiotics in the past?
Are There Any Over
Over-the-counter antibiotics for a UTI are not available. You should see your doctor to have your symptoms evaluated.
Your provider may recommend an OTC product called Uristat to numb your bladder and urethra to ease the burning pain during urination. Uristat can be bought without a prescription at the pharmacy. A similar phenazopyridine product called Pyridium is also available.
Take phenazopyridine for only 48 hours, and be aware it may cause your urine to turn a brown, orange or red color which may stain fabrics or contact lenses. It may be best to not wear contact lenses while being treated with phenazopyridine.
Phenazopyridine is not an antibiotic and will not cure a UTI.
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Q: How Do Single Dose Antibiotics Work
A: Single dose antibiotics undermine the growth cycle of the infection-causing bacteria by attacking the cell walls. In addition, they prevent the bacteria from being able to stick to the inside of the urinary tract. Because the bacteria is unable to cling to the lining of the urinary tract, it is much easier to flush out, as long as the patient drinks lots of water. Because they are only taken once, single dose antibiotics also guarantee near 100% compliance.
Is There Any Other Way To Prevent A Uti
While theres no foolproof way to ensure you never have a UTI, there are strategies and behaviors that may lower your risk:
- Women should wipe from front to back to stop the spread of bacteria.
- Avoid using douches, powders, sprays or other materials in the genital area.
UTIs are commonplace so commonplace, in fact, that theyre one of the most frequently treated issues by telehealth professionals. If youre experiencing symptoms consistent with a UTI, dont wait until your schedule clears up to make an appointment with a physician. Dont wait for your doctors next in-office opening six weeks from now, either.
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What Antibiotics Are Prescribed For Utis
Most UTIs are categorized as being uncomplicated in nature. This basically means that the infection is only in the bladder and there are no other worrisome symptoms like a fever, chills or flank and back pain that could indicate a more serious infection. In these cases, the antibiotics Macrobid or Keflex are commonly prescribed.
Q: Will Any Antibiotic Work On A Uti
A: No. You cannot take just any antibiotic and expect it to get rid of a UTI. The body processes different antibiotics in different ways. A randomly chosen antibiotic may only pass through the urinary tract in tiny amounts that do nothing but strengthen any bacteria that may be present. Or, that it is completely ineffective against the type of bacteria in your system.
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Q: What Happens If I Take Antibiotics Too Often
A: It is up to your doctor to determine what is too often. But certainly, if you are back at the doctors office every month for another UTI, then you have a chronic infection situation , and your treatment will need to be adjusted. That may include taking a slightly smaller dose of antibiotics but for a much longer period of time.
Q: How Did I Get A Uti
A: A UTI is the result of bacteria entering the urinary tract. So any activity or event that brings bacteria in contact with the urethra can potentially cause a UTI. In women, that would include wiping from back to front after using the toilet. Having sex is a common cause of UTIs. Kidney stones too . And women with diabetes may be more susceptible because of their compromised immune system.
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How Is A Uti Diagnosed
To diagnose a UTI, your GP will examine you and ask you questions about your general health. Sometimes that might be enough to diagnose a UTI. Your doctor may want you to provide a urine sample to identify what bacteria is causing the infection. Your doctor may also do a blood test and check your temperature and heart rate.
Treatment For Uncomplicated Utis
If youre an otherwise healthy woman who isnt pregnant and hasnt entered menopause, your doctor may prescribe one of the following antibiotics to resolve an uncomplicated UTI.
1. Trimethoprim or Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole
These synthetic, oral antibiotics often shortened to TMP and TMP-SMX are common first options for treatment due to their cost and their efficacy. A three-day regimen is typical.
Typical dose: 100-milligram tablet every 12 hours or 200-milligram tablet every 24 hours
Most common side effects:
2. Fosfomycin
Fosfomycin distinguishes itself from the other antibiotics on this list by the fact that a single dose may be all thats required to clear up some patients UTIs. Although less frequently prescribed in the United States, it has been a common treatment option in Europe since the late 1980s.
Fosfomycin also stands out because its available as a powder. Patients dissolve the contents of a prescribed powder packet in 4 ounces of water, then drink it immediately.
Typical dose: 3 grams
Most common side effects:
- Thick, white discharge
- Pain during intercourse
3. Nitrofurantoin
Nitrofurantoin is another route your doctor might take, and its available as a capsule or a liquid. The main difference between this antibiotic and those listed above is that it requires five to seven days to work. Because its been shown to exacerbate preexisting pulmonary issues, its typically not recommended for use by elderly patients.
Common side effects:
5. ß-Lactams
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Why Is It Important To Take My Antibiotic As Prescribed
When prescribing an antibiotic, a healthcare provider takes many factors into account, such as allergy history, cost, tolerability, previous antibiotic therapy, and prevalence of drug resistance. Drug resistance is a public health problem. It refers to how germs can develop antibiotic resistance to our antibiotics through developing mutations that defend them and passing that genetic information on to other germs .
Antibiotic resistance makes our drugs less effective and affects people everywhere. If your healthcare provider prescribes an antibiotic treatment, you can do your part to help fight this problem. Follow your providers directions and remember the following guidelines .
Monitoring Response To Therapy
Patients with a simple, uncomplicated UTI may not require rigorous monitoring. However, patients with complicated, relapsing, or recurrent infections should be monitored very closely. The following protocol is recommended to monitor response to therapy in patients with relapsing, recurrent, or refractory UTI.3
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What Is A Urinary Tract Infection
If you have ever experienced the frequent urge to go the bathroom with painful and burning urination, you have probably experienced a urinary tract infection . UTIs are one of the most common types of infections, accounting for over 10 million visits to health care providers each year. Roughly 40% of women experience a UTI at some time, and in women, it is the most common infection. Healthcare costs related to UTIs exceed $1.6 billion per year.
A urinary tract infection can happen anywhere along your urinary tract, which includes the kidneys , the ureters , the bladder , or the urethra . Most UTIs occur in the bladder and urethra. Common symptoms include frequent need to urinate, burning while urinating, and pain in lower abdomen area.
There are different types of UTIs based on where the bacteria goes. A lower urinary tract infection occurs when bacteria gets into the urethra and is deposited up into the bladder — this is called cystitis. Infections that get past the bladder and up into the kidneys are called pyelonephritis.
Urinary tract infection symptoms may include:
- Pain or burning upon urination
- A frequent or urgent need to urinate
- Passing small amounts of urine
- Blood in the urine or or pink-stained urine
- Urines that looks cloudy
- Strong-smelling urine
- Pain, cramping in the pelvis or pubic bone area, especially in women
Upper UTIs which include the kidney may also present with symptoms of fever, chills, back or side pain, and nausea or vomiting.
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Urine Drug Concentration And Clinical Efficacy
Antimicrobial drugs must achieve an adequate urine concentration, which must be maintained for a sufficient time for a drug to be effective in treating UTI.16 It has been suggested that clinical efficacy is observed when the urine drug concentration is maintained at a concentration 4-fold higher than the isolates MIC throughout the time between doses.9
Experimental studies in rats have shown that the time for which the plasma drug concentration exceeds the isolates MIC correlates to the magnitude of bacterial colony count reduction the longer the time for which the drug concentration remained above the MIC, the lower the urine colony counts.12 Successful eradication of bacteria within the renal parenchyma or urinary bladder wall is correlated to the plasma, not urine, drug concentration.
When prescribing time-dependent antibiotics, shortening the interval between drug administration is the most effective method to allow the tissue/urine drug concentration to exceed the MIC for the majority of the dosing interval.
- Drug elimination follows first-order kinetics, where 50% of the drug is lost in 1 half-life.
- In contrast, doubling the dose would only add 1 half-life to the dosing interval.
- To add 2 half-lives to the dosing interval, the initial dose would have to be increased 4-fold. The peak serum drug concentration achieved by this approach may exceed the window of safety, producing adverse drug effects.
Why Symptoms Don’t Go Away With Treatment
If you get a UTI, your doctor can give you medication to make the bacteria causing the infection go away. These medications are called antibiotics.
You will usually need to take the medicine every day for about 2 weeks. You should also drink plenty of fluid to help clear the infection from your body.
Even if you take the medication the way your doctor tells you to and drink a lot, your infection might not go away. There are a few reasons why this can happen.
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What Antibiotics Treat A Uti
Reviewed by Theresa H. Care Delivery Manager & Family Nurse Practitioner
That urgent feeling that you need to go. The pain and burning sensation when you do. And that unsatisfying trickle of cloudy-colored urine. Theres no denying it. You know something isnt right with your body and all of your symptoms point to a urinary tract infection . If you think you have a UTI sometimes also called a bladder infection or cystitis you need to treat and clear up the bacterial infection. But how? Despite all of the home remedies touted on the internet, you need to take antibiotics to treat a UTI.
Thats right. Theres a lot of misinformation circulating out there about at-home remedies for UTIs. But the truth is that taking fistfuls of probiotics and downing glass after glass of cranberry juice isnt going to kill the bacteria thats behind your infection. Theres no way around it the only effective treatment for a UTI is antibiotics.
Q: What Should I Do If Antibiotics Dont Get Rid Of My Uti
A: If your UTI does not respond to antibiotics it may be resistant to the particular type of antibiotic you are using. Or you may have a viral infection . You will need to discuss the matter with your doctor. He or she will likely need to conduct some tests to determine exactly what type of bacteria you are dealing with. After testing, they may prescribe a different antibiotic, increase your dosage, or suggest a different course of action.
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Why Antibiotics Are The Golden Standard
Urinary tract infections occur due to an external bacterial infection in the urinary tract of a body. The most common treatment option is a course of antibiotic therapy that targets the pathogens and the bacteria causing the infection.
The appropriate antibiotic course leads to higher symptomatic and bacteriological cure rates and significantly reduces the chances of reinfection. The types of antibiotics prescribed as the first line of treatment are based upon the type of bacteria found in your urine after the urine analysis, your health status, and the severity of the infection.
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Q: How Is A Single Dose Antibiotic Taken
A: Fosfomycin comes in powder form. You typically mix it with a half-glass of water and drink it straight away. Whether you take it with or without food makes no difference. Whether you take standard antibiotics or single dose antibiotics you will likely feel better in a few days. The difference is that you will not need to remember to take antibiotics twice a day for 10 days. This increases compliance and reduces the chance of recurrence.
