Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: Can Immunoactive Prophylaxis Improve Disease Management In Healthy Women?

This educational summit, supported by an independent grant from OM/Vifor Pharma, brought together experts in the field of urology and gynaecology from Europe and Latin America to meet and discuss the cutting edge management of patients suffering from recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs). The meeting included plenary lectures as well as workshops and interactive sessions, allowing delegates and presenters to debate the most pressing international and local issues in the field.

UTIs are one of the most prevalent bacterial infections and are the most common type of infection in healthy adult women, affecting 50% of them at least once in their lifetime.¹ The level of antibacterial resistance in common uropathogenic organisms is reaching alarming levels² and the importance of prophylaxis in the context of increasing resistance cannot be overstated. The current three-tiered approach taken by the European Association of Urology (EAU) for UTI prevention consists of: counselling and behavioural modification, followed by non-antimicrobial prophylaxis, and eventually antimicrobial prophylaxis.³ For many women, counselling and behavioural modification will not be enough to prevent rUTIs, resulting in a need for effective non-antimicrobial therapies which spare antibiotic use and reduce the risk of engendering further resistance in uropathogens. OM-89, a bacterial-lysate-based therapy, currently has the grade of recommendation B in the EAU guidelines for non-antimicrobial prevention of rUTI in otherwise healthy women.³ In the following report we will summarise the putative immunostimulatory mechanism of OM-89 and review the evidence for its efficacy in preventing rUTIs in healthy pre and post-menopausal women.