Abstract

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) cause significant morbidity, and in some patients recurrent cystitis severely impacts quality of life. Antibiotic treatment is, in most cases, effective but when repeated courses or long-term prophylactics are needed. However, the long term therapy may develop side effects of drug such as ecological disturbance in bowel or antibiotics resistance. Bacterial interference has attracted interest as a possible alternative treatment option for recurrent UTI or persistence infection patients. The strain used for colonization, the ABU isolate Escherichia coli 83972, has been shown to cause symptom-free colonizations for long periods of time. Patients on long-term colonization report a subjective benefit, and UTI treatments are rare in colonized patients. I present an update on bacterial interference theory in mainly research point of view, and describe some clinical results of the E. coli 83972 colonization trials.

• Keywords: Urinary tract infection, Bacterial interference, E-coli