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Urinary tract infections, or UTIs, are on the rise -- and they may be becoming more dangerous.
尿路感染（UTI）呈上升趨勢，可能變得更加危險。
The overall disease burden associated with UTIs has increased by more than 68 percent between 1990 and 2019.
1990年至2019年間，與尿路感染相關的整體疾病負擔增加了68%以上。
At the same time, the bacteria that cause UTIs have developed resistance to common drugs.
同時，引起尿路感染的細菌已經對普通藥物產生了耐藥性。
Usually, UTIs are thought of as more of a painful nuisance rather than dangerous or fatal.
通常，尿路感染會更多地被認為是一種痛苦的滋擾，而不是危險或致命的。
But for an elderly patient or someone with multiple medical conditions, the antibiotics that fight the infection can be essential.
但對于老年患者或患有多種疾病的人來說，對抗感染的抗生素可能是必不可少的。
Failing to get these antibiotics contributes to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people every year globally.
由于無法獲得這些抗生素，會導致全球每年有數十萬人死亡。
Even when they aren't deadly, the more than 400 million annual worldwide UTI cases significantly strain limited medical resources.
即使它們并不致命，全球每年有超過4億例尿路感染病例，也使有限的醫療資源嚴重緊張。
"We know UTIs are a tremendous cause of morbidity and even mortality, but they are also a huge burden on the U.S. healthcare system -- contributing to well over $2 billion annually in healthcare costs," says Michelle Van Kuiken, a urologist and a urogynecologist at the University of California, San Francisco.
“我們知道尿路感染是發病甚至死亡的一個重要原因，但它們也給美國醫療保健系統帶來了巨大負擔--每年造成的醫療費用遠遠超過20億美元，”泌尿科醫生和泌尿婦科醫生米歇爾·范·奎肯說道。
Working to ease this burden, scientists have been seeking to identify and understand lesser-known contributing factors.
為了減輕這一負擔，科學家一直在尋求識別和理解鮮為人知的影響因素。
One culprit may come as a surprise: meat contaminated by Escherichia coli bacteria.
罪魁禍首之一可能會令人驚訝：被大腸桿菌污染的肉類。
UTIs can start in any part of the urinary system and can affect the kidneys, bloodstream, and uterus, but they most commonly infect the bladder "with symptoms of urinary frequency, urgency to urinate (sometimes despite having an empty bladder), and burning during urination," says Craig Comiter, a urologist at Stanford University.
尿路感染可以始于泌尿系統的任何部位，并可能影響腎臟、血液和子宮，但它們最常見的是感染膀胱，“出現尿頻、尿急（有時盡管膀胱是空的）和灼熱感的癥狀”，斯坦福大學泌尿科醫生克雷格·科米特說。
Cramping, fever, malodor, and blood in the urine can also be signs of a bladder infection.
痙攣、發燒、惡臭和血尿也可能是膀胱感染的跡象。
UTIs occur when bacteria enter the urethra and infect the urinary tract -- something that can occur during sexual activity, because of a genetic predisposition, or due to poor hygiene practices such as not wiping properly.
當細菌進入尿道并感染尿路時，就會發生尿路感染--這種情況可能在性活動期間發生，因為遺傳傾向，或由于不良的衛生習慣（例如不正確擦拭）而導致。
UTIs are the most common infection treated outside of hospitals in the United States, affecting some 50-60 percent of women during their lifetime.
尿路感染是美國醫院外治療中最常見的感染，影響了約50-60%的女性一生。
Roughly a quarter of women also report repeat infections within six months.
大約四分之一的女性也報告在六個月內重復感染。
While UTIs can happen to anyone, they are about 30 times more common in women because females have shorter urethras that are closer in proximity to the anus -- a common source of bacteria.
雖然尿路感染可能發生在任何人身上，但女性的發生率大約是男性的30倍，因為女性的尿道較短，更靠近肛門（細菌的常見來源）。
Broken down, "the groups at most risk for infections are sexually active women, elderly women, and immunosuppressed men and women," says Comiter.
細分來看，“感染風險最高的族群是性活躍的女性、老年女性和免疫抑制的男性和女性，”科米特說。
When UTIs only affect the bladder, they aren't considered dangerous and usually resolve without treatment -- though antibiotics are frequently prescribed to speed the healing process up from weeks to days.
當尿路感染只影響膀胱時，它們并不被認為是危險的，通常無需治療即可痊愈--盡管經常開抗生素來加速愈合過程，從幾周到幾天。
When these infections spread to the kidneys, bloodstream, or to different areas of the reproductive system, however, they can lead to serious complications such as blood poisoning, sepsis, kidney damage, or kidney failure.
然而，當這些感染擴散到腎臟、血液或生殖系統的不同部位時，可能會導致嚴重的并發癥，如血液中毒、敗血癥、腎臟損傷或腎衰竭。
When left untreated, "a very small percentage of these cases can even be life-threatening," explains Jacob Lazarus, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a bacterial cell biologist at Harvard Medical School.
麻州總醫院傳染病醫生、哈佛醫學院細菌細胞生物學家雅各布·拉扎勒斯解釋說，如果不及時治療，“其中極少數病例甚至可能危及生命”。
