Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)

Your urinary tract includes the organs that collect and store urine and release it from your body. These organs include the kidneys, which remove liquid waste from the blood in the form of urine, keep a balance of salts and other substances in the blood, and produce a hormone that helps form red blood cells. It also includes the ureters or narrow tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder, the triangle-shaped chamber in the lower abdomen that stores urine; and the urethra, a tube that carries the urine as it leaves the body. (See the diagram below.)

A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection anywhere in the urinary tract. Normal urine is sterile. It contains fluids, salts, and waste products, but it is free of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. An infection occurs when microorganisms, usually bacteria from the digestive tract, cling to the urethra, or opening to the urinary tract, and begin to multiply.