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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）呈上升趋势，可能变得更加危险。
The overall disease burden associated with UTIs has increased by more than 68 percent between 1990 and 2019.
1990年至2019年间，与尿路感染相关的整体疾病负担增加了68%以上。
At the same time, the bacteria that cause UTIs have developed resistance to common drugs.
同时，引起尿路感染的细菌已经对普通药物产生了耐药性。
Usually, UTIs are thought of as more of a painful nuisance rather than dangerous or fatal.
通常，尿路感染会更多地被认为是一种痛苦的滋扰，而不是危险或致命的。
But for an elderly patient or someone with multiple medical conditions, the antibiotics that fight the infection can be essential.
但对于老年患者或患有多种疾病的人来说，对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.
由于无法获得这些抗生素，会导致全球每年有数十万人死亡。
Even when they aren't deadly, the more than 400 million annual worldwide UTI cases significantly strain limited medical resources.
即使它们并不致命，全球每年有超过4亿例尿路感染病例，也使有限的医疗资源严重紧张。
"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.
“我们知道尿路感染是发病甚至死亡的一个重要原因，但它们也给美国医疗保健系统带来了巨大负担--每年造成的医疗费用远远超过20亿美元，”泌尿科医生和泌尿妇科医生米歇尔·范·奎肯说道。
Working to ease this burden, scientists have been seeking to identify and understand lesser-known contributing factors.
为了减轻这一负担，科学家一直在寻求识别和理解鲜为人知的影响因素。
One culprit may come as a surprise: meat contaminated by Escherichia coli bacteria.
罪魁祸首之一可能会令人惊讶：被大肠杆菌污染的肉类。
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统的任何部位，并可能影响肾脏、血液和子宫，但它们最常见的是感染膀胱，“出现尿频、尿急（有时尽管膀胱是空的）和灼热感的症状”，斯坦福大学泌尿科医生克雷格·科米特说。
Cramping, fever, malodor, and blood in the urine can also be signs of a bladder infection.
痉挛、发烧、恶臭和血尿也可能是膀胱感染的迹象。
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.
当细菌进入尿道并感染尿路时，就会发生尿路感染--这种情况可能在性活动期间发生，因为遗传倾向，或由于不良的卫生习惯（例如不正确擦拭）而导致。
UTIs are the most common infection treated outside of hospitals in the United States, affecting some 50-60 percent of women during their lifetime.
尿路感染是美国医院外治疗中最常见的感染，影响了约50-60%的女性一生。
Roughly a quarter of women also report repeat infections within six months.
大约四分之一的女性也报告在六个月内重复感染。
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.
虽然尿路感染可能发生在任何人身上，但女性的发生率大约是男性的30倍，因为女性的尿道较短，更靠近肛门（细菌的常见来源）。
Broken down, "the groups at most risk for infections are sexually active women, elderly women, and immunosuppressed men and women," says Comiter.
细分来看，“感染风险最高的族群是性活跃的女性、老年女性和免疫抑制的男性和女性，”科米特说。
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.
当尿路感染只影响膀胱时，它们并不被认为是危险的，通常无需治疗即可痊愈--尽管经常开抗生素来加速愈合过程，从几周到几天。
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，当这些感染扩散到肾脏、血液或生殖系统的不同部位时，可能会导致严重的并发症，如血液中毒、败血症、肾脏损伤或肾衰竭。
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.
麻州总医院传染病医生、哈佛医学院细菌细胞生物学家雅各布·拉扎勒斯解释说，如果不及时治疗，“其中极少数病例甚至可能危及生命”。
