Report: Antibiotics Don't Prevent Future Urinary Tract Infections

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has conducted a very important survey that may alter the way children with urinary tract infections are treated.

The study shows that while treating an infection with antibiotics should clear up the infection, it does not necessarily prevent future infections and may in fact actually cause resistance to antibiotics in future infections

This is the first study of its kind and it took in a lot of information to come to its conclusion. They reviewed the electronic health records of 74,974 children with at least two clinic visits in The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's pediatric healthcare network between July 2001 and May 2006. It turned out that 611 children had a first urinary tract infection and 83 had a recurrent UTI. Children between ages three and five, Caucasians, and those with severe vesicoureteral reflux had the highest risk of recurrent UTI. Receiving a daily dose of preventive antibiotics was not associated with a lower risk of recurrent UTI.

The majority of children with first UTI were female, Caucasian and two through six years old. Most did not have an imaging study performed and did not receive daily antibiotics to prevent infections. Daily antibiotic treatment was not associated with a decreased risk of recurrent UTIs, but was associated with an increased risk of resistant infections. Simply put, when you get too much antibiotics, your body builds up and immunity to them so taking antibiotics as a precaution will simply not work.

They are planing to go beyond the study and do some controlled clinical studies, which because they are done under more controlled conditions, should lead to a more definitive conclusion. study.