Popular UTI remedy backed by NHS deemed ‘ineffective’, study reveals

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WOMEN who suffer UTIs will be frsutrated to hear an NHS-backed remedy has been deemed ‘ineffective’ in a study.

Between 10 and 20 per cent of women will have a symptomatic UTI in their lifetime, and three per cent report a history of recurrent UTI in the past year, Nice says.

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They may turn to alternative methods to try and keep the nasty infection at bay, such as drinking cranberry juice.

To prevent UTIs coming back, the NHS says “there’s some evidence it may be helpful to take D-mannose – a sugar you can buy as a powder or tablets to take every day”.

While some animal studies and clinical trials have shown D-mannose to potentially have benefit, a new trial of almost 600 women suggests otherwise.

Women are more likely to get UTIs than men because their urethra is shorter and therefore, bacteria is more able to travel to the bladder.

Oxford University enrolled women 18 and older from 99 primary care centers who had at least two UTIs in the preceding six months or three in 12 months. 

They were split randomly to take either 2g of D-mannose powder or 2g of a placebo powder. 

Of the women taking D-mannose, 51 per cent (150 of 294) returned to their doctor with a suspected UTI compared with 55.7 per cent (161 of 289) of the placebo group.

There were no significant differences seen in other measured outcomes either, including symptom duration or antibiotic use.

The study authors wrote: “Daily d-mannose should not be recommended to prevent future episodes of clinically suspected UTI in women with rUTI in primary care.”

In an accompany commenteray, doctors at the University of California warned that the study did not confirm all of the reported suspected UTIs.

“Many of these suspected UTI episodes may not have represented true UTIs, given that patients with a history of previous UTIs are sometimes inclined to suspect recurrence on the basis of vague or nonspecific symptoms that do not have clinical predictive value for acute infection,” they wrote.

Still, they say the trial was well-designed and the findings provide “compelling new data” that challenge recommendations for using D-mannose to prevent UTIs.

Vaccine hope

But not all hope is lost, after scientists this week discovered a “groundbreaking” treatment can prevent infections for up to nine years in more than half of patients.

Effectively, a ‘vaccine’ could soon be available to prevent the agonising condition.

Symptoms of a UTI usually include pain or a burning sensation when peeing, needing to pee more often than usual and stomach pain.

The infections can be dangerous, particularly for older people, causing irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure and triggering potentially lethal falls.

Drugs that treat UTIs are becoming less effective as antibiotic-resistant infections increase.

The recent study, conducted at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust,  revealed that 54 per cent of participants have not had a UTI since they took the vaccine.

The jab, called MV140, is given as a pineapple-flavoured oral spray and could be given as an alternative to these antibiotics.

It contains four types of inactivated bacteria – which means they cannot infect the body and make someone ill – including E. Coli, the most common cause of a UTI.

Dr Bob Yang, consultant urologist at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, who co-led the research, said: “Nine years after first receiving this new UTI vaccine, around half of the participants remained infection-free.”

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