Q: My 37 years old wife has been complaining of back ache, abdominal pain and frequent urination problem for long. We have consulted several doctors during the last 2-3 years and most of them concluded it as urinary tract infection after routine examination and she was on antibiotic treatment for at least 6 times in a year for this reason only. This time, in the urine routine examination, there are 25-30% RBCs with pus cells/ WBCs. The urologist has advised Urine AFB and CT Urography. Does that mean she is suffering from a serious disease like tumour, cancer or TB? Are these diseases fully curable?

A:Two to three acute episodes of urinary tract infection may occur in a sexually active female during reproductive age group, and these respond to short course of antibiotics easily. If infections are more frequent and resistant to antibiotics, or patient has gross pyuria and hematuria (plenty of blood cells and pus cells in urine) even in absence of infection, other causes like stone disease, anatomical abnormalities of the urinary tract or genitourinary tuberculosis may have to be looked for. The investigations like urine AFB and CT Urography are investigations in this direction. While chronic infections like tuberculosis can be treated medically, anatomical abnormalities or stone disease may have to be treated surgically.