An early-stage vaccine developed by Washington University could help prevent urinary tract infections caused by hospital catheters - the most common of all hospital-acquired infections.
Wash U researcher Michael Caparon says the bacteria that cause these infections are becoming highly resistant to antibiotics.
"And the risk is, in a small percentage of those people, is that a simple infection in the bladder can progress to much more serious bloodstream infections."
Infections that could trigger sepsis, a potentially life-threatening complication.
Caparon says the new vaccine is very effective at preventing bladder infections in lab experiments with MICE.
But he says developing a HUMAN vaccine based on this experimental one would take at least five to ten years.
