Published in:
01-10-2019 | Urinary Tract Infection | Editorial Commentary
Defining urinary tract infection by bacterial colony counts: a case for 100,000 colonies/ml as the best threshold
Author:
Malcolm G. Coulthard
Published in:
Pediatric Nephrology
|
Issue 10/2019
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Excerpt
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common in childhood and cause a considerable health burden. Though many children have mild symptoms and are easily treated, some present severely unwell with urosepsis. UTIs may be associated with renal scarring, and in severe cases with hypertension, and renal impairment. They should be treated promptly to relieve symptoms and ideally within three days in infants < 2 years of age to reduce their risk of developing permanent kidney scars [
1,
2]. Virtually all authors, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) [
3,
4] and the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) [
5], emphasise the importance of rapid antibiotic treatment in the very young to reduce sequelae. …