health

Urinary tract infections are very common: Millions of people, especially
women, have them every year. It is estimated that one in five women have at
least one UTI in her lifetime, and some women have them repeatedly. UTIs
are not uncommon in children; by the time children reach their eleventh
birthday, 3 in 100 girls and 1 in 100 boys have had a UTI. Women and girls
are at a higher risk of UTIs because the female urethra is much shorter than
the male urethra. A shorter urethra means a shorter distance for bacteria to
travel to enter the urinary tract. Also, because the opening of the urethra is
much closer to the anus* in females, if a girl has a bowel movement and any
bacteria are left on the skin nearby, it is easy for them to invade the urethra.
Males may have UTIs too, but these infections usually result from
something in the urinary tract that blocks the normal flow of urine from
the body, such as a kidney stone* or an enlarged prostate* in older men.
In fact, anyone who has a problem with the structure of the urinary tract
or the way it functions is more likely to have UTIs. Urinary catheters*
can cause UTIs in either men or women because bacteria can enter the
urinary tract more easily when a catheter is present. For this reason, UTIs
can be a serious problem among patients in hospitals, where catheters are
used frequently. UTIs are not contagious, which means that a person cannot
catch a UTI from someone who has one. Chlamydia and Mycoplasma
bacteria, however, can be transmitted through sexual intercourse.