On the day of the UK’s launch of its new #AMR 5-year plan, I offer this account as it is closely linked in attempting to reduce the incidences of CAUTI, and thus, incident AMR risks. Here’s some food for thought Patients and health services suffer the scourge of CAUTI in both hospitals and communities. No approved strategy has made a substantial difference. Various alternatives exist but need unblocking by officialdom. Here’s a selection: 1 - #Catheter cleaning: To prevent

Botanical compounds, that we call cPACs exist in nature and having been patented by UroPharma for #urinarytract use, are being investigated by the company. They are for incorporation into a #lubricant urethral gel for safer urinary catheterisation, because the first line of defence against CAUTI is to prevent the bacteria getting into the bladder in the first place! #Urinary #catheters are such essential clinical tools that over a billion units are used annually with numbers

For some reason, we long assumed that #bacteria in the extra-systemic, #urinary cavity are subject to the same conditions as in other tissue infections, but they aren’t. #Antibiotics get to other tissue infections via blood whereas #cystitis #pathogens encounter antibiotics in #urine. That’s a big difference, first of all, blood pH range is narrow, so an antibiotic’s MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) is predictable there. The urinary pH range is very wide. Antibiotic MIC

The distal urethra is a residency for #bacteria, mostly commensals, but sometimes potential uropathogens move in. #Catheterisation hygiene cleans the skin around the urethral meatus but does not remove bacteria residing in the distal urethra. Many people have focused time, effort and money on coatings that are supposed to prevent such bacteria surviving #catheter entry into the #bladder. Such a #coating would need to kill the potential pathogens before they are transferred fr

Homeostatic mechanisms optimise our cellular chemistry. #antibiotics treatments are developed specifically to work in our narrow-band homeostatic chemical milieu to be delivered through blood to #infection sites for intimate combat with #bacterial invaders. With #cystitis, the bacteria are planktonic in urine and attached to urothelial cell membranes, so are too far away to be influenced by that approach. For #antibiotic tablets to have any chance to be effective against cy