With growing concern across the medical community that bugs are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, there are very few new antibiotics being developed, says Principal Investigator Professor Michael Moore. "We have to make sure that the antibiotics we have now will last into the future. The bugs we are treating are very adaptable and develop a resistance to those antibiotics.”
The ATAFUTI project investigates alternative treatments for adult female urinary tract infection in a double blind, placebo controlled, factorial randomised trial of Uva ursi and open pragmatic trial of ibuprofen.
The new treatment approach has been developed by researchers at the Universities of Southampton, Bristol and Oxford.
Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common female conditions treated by general practitioners, and the majority of patients are prescribed antibiotics. With increased antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics, and what is a self-limiting condition, alternative treatment strategies are being investigated to alleviate the uncomfortable symptoms. The herbal medicinal product (HMP) Arctostaphylos uva-ursi has a traditional use for treating UTI, but lacks rigorous clinical investigation. Its efficacy is now being tested in a doubleblind randomised controlled trial.
The School funded ATAFUTI study is supporting the trial through quality control analysis, antimicrobial testing of the HMP, and investigation into its mode of action. The clinical trial was developed to find out if either Bearberries or Ibuprofen can be used during a period of delayed antibiotic prescription to provide symptom relief.
Read more about the recruitment in a Press release from the University of Southampton