Q. What are genital infections?
A. These are infections affecting the genital organs- eg. vaginitis, cervicitis in females and epididymo-orchitis (infection of the testis) in males.
Q. What are symptoms of vaginitis and cervicitis?
A. Foul smelling per vaginal discharge, pain, heaviness and itching in the local areas.
Q. What is the treatment for these infections?
A. The treatment depends on the cause of infection. For example, antifungal medicines have to be given for candida-vaginitis or cervicitis.
Recurrent infections need long term treatment which should be done with expert advice.
Q. What are the symptoms of testicular infection in males?
A. Orchitis / Epididymoorchitis can lead to pain, swelling and heaviness of the scrotum. Fever may be present along with leukocytosis (increase in total WBC count).
This infection can be serious and patients may be critical due to local complications or spread of the infection in the body (sepsis).
Q. How is this infection treated?
A. Starting antibiotics at the earliest after admitting the patient is very important. Injectable medicines are needed initially, and the duration of treatment is longer than urinary tract infection.
Q. What are symptoms of urinary infections?
A. Pain, discomfort, burning while urination and increased frequency of passing urine are the features. Fever may also be present in upper UTI and complicated UTI.
Sometimes, the organisms causing UTI can spread and are isolated from the blood (Blood culture positive). These infections are critical with systemic signs and symptoms present in the patient (high grade fever, low BP, increased pulse rate, altered sensorium etc).
Q. Apart from antibiotic treatment, what other aspects have to be taken care of?
A. Presence of obstruction due to stones, increase in prostate size (in males), localization of infection as an abscess are some of the factors which are risk factors for UTI or need surgical treatment.
Especially in recurrent UTI, underlying cause or risk factor should be found.
