A Medical Doctor, Vanessa Mensah-Kabu, has raised awareness about the long-term effects of urinary tract infections and their treatment options.
In an interview on GhanaWeb TV’s Health Focus, Dr. Mensah-Kabu mentioned that kidney diseases and early or premature delivery in pregnant women are among the potential dangers associated with urinary tract infections.
“The main short-term complication is discomfort, having that urgency to urinate frequently. You know sometimes you are at an event or you’re at work, you’re going somewhere and every maybe 5 to 15 minutes you have to use the washroom, that is a discomfort and also the pain associated with the urinary tract infection is a complication of it.
“Long term effects, it can lead to kidney diseases and in pregnant women it can lead to early or premature delivery of their babies so these are some of the complications associated with urinary tract,” she stated.
Speaking about treatment options, particularly for pregnant women, Dr. Mensah-Kabu noted that the approach depends on the clinical state of the pregnant woman.
“The treatment for pregnant women because we have to be particular about the baby and conserving the growing baby or the fetus, the medications that are usually administered or given to pregnant women are different from that given to non-pregnant women and to the men.”
She highlighted that pregnant women are at a higher risk of contracting urinary tract infections compared to those who are not pregnant.
Dr. Mensah-Kabu added, however, that in some cases, the infection can resolve on its own due to lifestyle modifications and other factors.
“Also, pregnant women are more at risk of getting urinary tract infections than the average person that is not pregnant and so depending on the clinical state of the pregnant woman also, we do not readily give anti-biotics because sometimes it could just be a phase and we just encourage more hydration and then certain lifestyle modifications that could help reduce the symptom of the urinary tract infection.
“However, the treatment is different depending on the culture and sensitivity results so sometimes, that wait for the results to be ready can cause the disease to resolve on its own based on adequate re-hydration and lifestyle modification. So, depending on how severe the symptom is, we either start the antibiotic empirically, meaning that we start the antibiotic while we wait for the results of the culture insensitivity…,” she said.