Urinary tract infections - important facts in brief

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is a serious health problem affecting millions of women each year.

• Nearly 40% of women develop UTI at least once in their life-time, about 80-90% of them will be affected a second time.
• For about 25-35% of women between the ages of 20-40 years, UTI will pass without complications.
• Approximately 5-10% of women suffer frequent UTI. 3 or more infections per year or 2 infections within six month are called recurrent urinary tract infections.

Mostly sexually active women suffer UTIs. The risk increases 3-5 times among women using diaphragms for contraception.

Diagnosis

Urinary tract infections are diagnosed in a laboratory. The analysis is based on detecting the presence of Nitrite (a lot of bacteria cause a metabolism of Nitrate to Nitrite) and Leukocytes (white blood cells), using different methods such as dip-stick, urine microscopy or urine culture. As none of these procedures have proven appropriate for use at home, U-Lab has been especially designed for self-testing. The test is easy to use, the results are easy to interpret and they remain stable for 24 hours.

Treatment

A urinary tract infection is caused by bacteria and often requires antibiotic treatment.