Dramatic rise in drug-resistant urinary tract infections worldwide

WASHINGTON - Experts have raised concerns over a dramatic increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, responsible for causing urinary tract infections.

Faculty of 1000 member Dr Johann Pitout, of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Calgary, urges the medical community to monitor the spread of a multi-drug resistant bacterium before it becomes necessary to use more powerful antibiotics as a first response.

The researchers focussed their study on extended-spectrum a-lactamases (ESBLs), which are bacterially-produced enzymes that confer resistance to penicillin-type antibiotics.

In the recent years there has been a drastic increase in community-acquired infections, caused by a single strain of ESBL-producing E. coli.

Pitout suggests that the rapid spread of this particular strain is due, at least in part, to international travel through high-risk areas such as the Indian subcontinent.

Pitout said using carbapenems as the first response to such infections increases the risk of inducing resistance to them in the community, nullifying some of our most powerful anti-bacterial strategies.

It is recommended that the medical community should use existing methods to identify infections caused by ESBL-producing bacteria, and empirically test the efficacy of other antibiotics in treating community-acquired infections.

Dr Pitout concludes, “If this emerging public health threat is ignored … the medical community may be forced to use the carbapenems as the first choice for the empirical treatment of serious [community-acquired UTIs].” (ANI)