C. B. is a 30-year-old pregnant female that comes to you today complaining of cloudy urine, pain, and burning upon urination, and a sense of incomplete bladder emptying. After the patient provides a urine sample, you perform a rapid urine test. You conclude that she has a UTI.
Choose a drug and (antibiotic ) that you would prescribe. Explain your selection.
Explain to this first-time mom the effects of the drug you chose on the baby.
Sample Answer
Pharmacology
Urinary tract infections are infections that affect the urinary system in a person’s body which includes the ureters, the bladder, kidneys, and the urethra (Matuszkiewicz-Rowińska et al., 2015). The main cause of urinary tract infections is bacteria. This makes UTIs very common in pregnant women. The symptoms for UTIs include Having cloudy urine or urine that has an odor having trouble peeing, peeing more often, and having an urgent need to pee, a burning sensation in the lower back belly, or cramps, among others (Matuszkiewicz-Rowińska et al., 2015). The 30-year old pregnant female in the case study displays all the symptoms of urinary tract infections.
The ideal antibiotic for the 30-year-old pregnant female with a UTI would be amoxicillin. Administering amoxicillin to the 30-year-old pregnant female would be appropriate because the drugs are considered safe for pregnant women (Ghouri et al., 2019). Amoxicillin would be accepted to have no effects on the unborn baby. This is because numerous studies have highlighted the different types of penicillin’s including amoxicillin, which has not been found to be associated with an increased risk of birth defects that are associated with antibiotics. The numerous birth defects associated with antibiotics include choanal atresia, which is the block of the nasal passage in the fetus; anencephaly, which is a fetal malformation of the brain and the skull; diaphragmatic hernia, transverse limb deficiency, congenital heart defects, eye defects, and cleft palate. The use of amoxicillin to treat the 30-year-old pregnant women suffering from UTI Would therefore not be expected to cause any birth defects on the unborn baby because amoxicillin is classified by the federal drug administration as a pregnancy category A drug. The FDA relies on expensive and high-quality data to determine which medications are safe for pregnant women, including antibiotics (Ghouri et al., 2019).
References
- Ghouri, F., Hollywood, A., & Ryan, K. (2019). Urinary tract infections and antibiotic use in pregnancy – qualitative analysis of online forum content. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-019-2451-z
- Matuszkiewicz-Rowińska, J., Małyszko, J., & Wieliczko, M. (2015). State of the art paper Urinary tract infections in pregnancy: old and new unresolved diagnostic and therapeutic problems. Archives of Medical Science, 1, 67–77. https://doi.org/10.5114/aoms.2013.39202
