A simple stool test could tell doctors which antibiotic will work — before the infection even starts

For older women, a urinary tract infection often means days of discomfort while doctors guess which antibiotic will work — and guessing wrong is getting more common as germs resist the usual drugs. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Kaiser Permanente studied stool samples from 1,804 women aged 50 and over and followed them for 18 months. The bacteria already living in a woman's gut turned out to be a remarkably good forecast: women carrying E. coli there developed infections at more than three times the rate of women who did not (10.9% versus 3.3%), and testing those gut bacteria predicted which antibiotics would later work with 95% to 100% accuracy. In plain terms, a test done while a woman is still healthy could one day tell her doctor the right medicine in advance, instead of trial and error after she is already in pain.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation