Introductory Chapter: An Overview on Urinary Tract Infections, Pathogens, and Risk Factors

Abstract

Urinary tract infections (UTIs), the second-ranked infectious diseases, are recognized as a big concern relating to global healthcare systems. The problem with UTIs is two-dimensional. From the economic aspect, patients with UTIs cost millions of US dollars (USD) for different governments annually. From the other dimension, there is a huge number of patients with UTIs which must be visited by a considerable number of physicians and specialists that involve an abundance of human resources in the public healthcare systems. So, the UTIs should be diagnosed and treated definitely at the earliest to decrease the costs and traffics in public healthcare systems [1–6].