I am 48-year-old woman with no history of urinary tract infections. Three weeks ago I developed a UTI with gram-negative rods, resistant to many antibiotics. I also found out that one of my work colleagues had to go to the hospital for campylobacter, which means our bathroom at work was probably contaminated. Is there any way to determine if the infection I can't get rid of is campylobacter?

A.

First, let me clarify a few terms. "UTI" stands for urinary tract infection, which usually refers to a bladder infection. "Gram-negative rods" is a description of what certain bacteria look like under the microscope. Many bacteria that cause urinary tract infections have this appearance.

A UTI in a person of your age and sex is not uncommon. These infections can occur any age and are more common in women than in men. Infections can be associated with sexual intercourse, menopause, or insertion of a bladder catheter in the hospital. Many cases occur in the absence of any of these risk factors, however.

UTIs are usually relatively easy to treat with antibiotic pills, because many different antibiotics can usually kill the bacteria causing the disease. For a simple bladder infection, even one day of antibiotics can cure the infection, though we usually give three to five days just to be sure. Even though your strain is resistant to many antibiotics, I am quite certain there is at least one antibiotic that will be effective.

Campylobacter is the one of the most common bacterial causes of diarrhea in the United States. The infection can in rare cases be severe, causing fever, bloody diarrhea and serious complications. It is usually acquired from poorly cooked meats and poultry, unpasteurized milk or contaminated soil or water. Undercooked poultry is the most common source. Person-to-person spread can occur, but it is rare. To spread in that way requires ingesting fecal matter through the mouth, usually via contaminated water or food. So a toilet seat would be a very unlikely source of this type of infection. In your case, it is even less likely, because campylobacter is a very rare cause of UTI. I have never seen a case, though a few have been reported in medical journals.

Determining the exact cause of a UTI is quite easy. A sample of urine is sent to a microbiology laboratory for culture. The culturing process allows any bacteria present to multiply, and technicians can then perform tests to identify the species of microbe present. I'm not sure whether that was done in your case, since the term "gram-negative rods" is really just a general description of what the bacteria looked like under the microscope. Whether or not a culture was performed, I am sure your co-worker's campylobacter did not cause your illness.