UTIs are the most common bacterial infection, affecting 150 million people annually, and it is estimated that 50% of women treated will have a recurrence within six months. Researchers recently addressed the need for non-antibiotic interventions to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) as reported in this article that was published in Nature Reviews Urology.
Healthcare providers are seeing a rise in antimicrobial resistance in their populations from increasing frequencies of antibiotic use, prompting them to explore alternative methodologies. These include probiotics, D-mannose, methenamine hippurate, estrogens, intravesical glycosaminoglycans, and immunostimulants. One study indicated success with vaginal probiotics. It found lactobacilli may prevent UTIs by reducing vaginal and urethral colonization. L. crispatus in particular had greater ability to block uropathogen adherence in vaginal epithelial cells than any other lactobacilli. The article also discusses dietary measures, competitive inoculation, and other non-antibiotic mechanisms as promising interventions to reduce UTI recurrence rates. Researchers conclude that more randomized trials are needed to validate non-antibiotic treatments due to their heterogeneous nature, but encourage more exploration for interventions to address the antimicrobial resistance crisis and effectively manage UTI recurrence.
Lactobacilli has proven to play a key role in vaginal immunity and maintaining the health of the vaginal biome. Click here to learn more.
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Nonantibiotic prevention and management of recurrent urinary tract infection
Néha Sihra, Anna Goodman, Rhana Zakri, Arun Sahai and Sachin Malde (Nature Reviews Urology; October 25, 2018)