Urinary tract infections in pregnancy, if left untreated, can lead to premature labor, warns Dr. Alan Rigoberto Carvajal.
“An infection of this type increases the risk of preterm delivery and premature rupture of membranes, which results in infections in the newborn,” he said during the Academic and Cultural Days of the University of Sinaloa.
The specialist recommended that women be tested for the first few weeks of gestation, in order for their doctor to detect any type of infection.
“The best recommendation is gestational screening, because urinary tract infections do not give symptomatology at first and can only be detected by clinical tests previously ordered by a doctor,” he said.
He added that these types of infections are very common among pregnant women, but they can not be detected until they go through the appropriate tests.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 15 million preterm infants are born every year in the world, that is, before 37 weeks of gestation, and one million of them die from complications arising from their birth.
In Mexico, it is estimated that at least 15% of babies born yearly do so prematurely.
Many of the surviving preterm infants suffer some form of lifelong disability, in particular, learning disabilities and visual and hearing problems.
