If you are suffering from any bacterial infection, your doctor will most certainly prescribe you a dose of antibiotics. Antibiotics help eliminate unwanted microbes from the body. However, antibiotics do not distinguish between good or bad bacteria. Hence in the process of killing bad bacteria, it can wipe out beneficial bacteria as well.

Our body maintains a healthy number of good bacteria for its smooth functioning and overall wellness. A disbalance can cause allergies and side effects like dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, and yeast infection.

What is a yeast infection?

Vagina usually has a small amount of yeast called candida fungus, and the presence of bacteria keeps their outgrowth in check. However, any disruption in vaginal balance can cause a sudden outgrowth of candida. This is referred to as yeast infection.

Yeast infection is common but extremely uncomfortable. Three in four women have been infected by yeast infection at least once in their life, and half of them have recurring episodes of ailment.

Yeast infection can cause irritation, discharge, itchiness, vaginal discomfort, etc. The symptoms also depend on the severity of the infection.

How can antibiotics cause a yeast infection?

The vagina contains a healthy balance of yeast and bacteria for its smooth functioning. A type of bacteria called Lactobacillus is responsible for maintaining the ph. balance of your vagina. The presence of lactobacillus keeps the vagina slightly acidic, which helps keep the growth of yeast in check.

When you are taking antibiotics for any other bacterial infection, it may end up killing the lactobacillus bacteria. This disrupts the vaginal ph. and creates a conducive environment for vaginal yeast to multiply. The sudden outgrowth of yeast in the vagina can cause yeast infection followed by its dreaded symptoms.

How to know whether you have yeast infection caused due to antibiotics?

When you start taking antibiotics for any bacterial infection, it is essential to be aware of signs and symptoms that can point to yeast infection. Early detection can help you avoid a lot of pain and discomfort.

The symptoms of a yeast infection are as follows:

•  The vulva is the area outside your vagina. Itching or burning sensation on or around the vulva can point towards an infection.

•  A sudden increase in vaginal discharge can also be an indicator of yeast infection. The discharge is usually thick, white, odorless, and lumpy.

•  Vaginal rash, pain or soreness, and Redness or swelling of the vulva can also be a symptom of yeast infection.

•  Pain or burning sensation, especially during intercourse and urination could be caused by yeast infection.

•  If you notice these symptoms during your antibiotic medication, it can point towards a yeast infection.

How to prevent and treat yeast infection from antibiotics?

As we mentioned earlier, yeast infections are very common. There are numerous over-the-counter medications available that can help treat yeast infection. Choose the ones that suit you better.

You can get a suppository or an antifungal cream for yeast infections at your local medical shop. You can also order them online and get them delivered to your doorstep.

If you get a yeast infection every time you take antibiotics, it is better to consult your health care provider. They may prescribe a pill containing fluconazole to be taken during your antibiotic medication. Also, you must consult your doctor if you are unsure whether you have a yeast infection or not.

Since broad-spectrum antibiotics wipe out all the bacteria from your body, including the beneficial ones, you need to replenish the good bacteria in your body. There are numerous probiotic supplements containing lactobacillus that can reverse the damage caused by antibiotics.

Adding yogurt to your diet can also help replenish the good bacteria. Yogurt contains lactobacillus bacteria and can increase the number of good bacteria in your body.

Try avoiding antibiotics until necessary. Minor infections can heal by themselves, and the antibiotics do not create a significant difference in the healing time. However, if your health care provider prescribes antibiotics, you must take them but be careful if you notice any after-effects.

When it comes to cost, it is the first thing that often comes to mind to those expectant parents who wish to store their blood in the cord blood bank. Well, they need to know the fact that cord blood bank costs tend to vary from company to company that offers cord blood banking facilities. While searching for cord blood banking in a country like the US, you will come across plenty of options. And their storage cost is indeed different. So, you need to store your cord blood accordingly.

There are two types of blood banks available to store your cord blood. Some of these are privately held whereas others are public cord blood banking. If you don’t wish to spend even a single penny on your baby’s cord blood storage, it’s advisable to approach public cord blood banks since they offer their services without charging anything. Be its collection process, testing, or storage, the public held blood banks don’t charge for anything from their customers.

Private blood banks, on the other hand, charge for everything. So, if you have decided to approach them you need to be ready to spend your hard-earned money. Whether you approach a public or private blood bank, they both needs parents especially the mother of the child to go for different testing be it HIV, hepatitis, or others.

Financial Aid for Cord Blood Bank

Yes, financial aid is available but only for those who have sick children who could avail of the benefits of umbilical cord blood. There are many public banks and even private banks that have a special program that aims to provide the greatest assistance be it for processing cord blood processing or its storage.

But, one can avail of such assistance only if their baby has a biological sibling who is suffering from diseases. Some cord blood banks facilitate you to store your baby’s cord blood for at least one year.

Why One Should Consider Private Cord Blood Bank

A private cord blood bank has numerous advantages to those people having a family history of various diseases that are harmful to the immune and blood of your human body. Some of these diseases are cancers, leukemia, sickle-cell anemia, and various diseases related to metabolic disorders.

Those parents who are blessed with a child who is suffering from illness with any of the above diseases can grab opportunities to find the best match with the cord blood of their baby. Besides, those parents who have a family history of diseases like Alzheimer’s autism, diabetes, etc, can also avail of numerous advantages from using cord blood.

Though it’s not possible to cure these diseases completely with the use of umbilical cord steam cells, researchers nowadays work hard to find ways for curing them by using cord blood.

Factors that determine the cost of Cord Blood Storage

So, if you are fully determined to storage your baby’s cord blood in the bank, then you should also know various factors that determine the overall cost. Take a look at all those factors that have a higher potential to affect the cord blood bank cost to a wider extent.

Total Monocular Cell Counts

When it comes to mononuclear cell counts, these are something that tends to differ from nucleated cell counts by the exclusion of polymorphonuclear cells like neutrophils that can’t be included in strategies for volume storages.

Total Volume

This is another factor that impacts the overall cost of cord blood storage. The collected volumes are related to hematopoietic measures of unique quality such as overall nucleated cell count. It is helpful for a bank in deciding units that they can exclude even without any kind of characterization that relates to higher cost.

Apart from these, many other factors such as Mononuclear Cell Count, CD34+, Age of Unit, and others also play a crucial role in determining the cost of blood storage.

Medical device design is not a new market, but due to lots of entrepreneurial ventures and outsourcing, it has outgrown other major markets. Every hospital, nursing home, or even a house might have some medical appliance that was made by a medical device designer firm.

The two things you must remember before designing a medical device or hiring a medical device designer is- The market value of the product and any intellectual property regulations associated with it. Not valuing these points might land you and your product in deep losses.

What is Medical device design?

Medical device design is the process through which healthcare appliances like machines used at hospitals, software-controlled insulin pumps, an allergic drug vending machine and so on are designed, both internally and externally.

Medical device design confers to all the things which are necessary for a medical device like the software application, hardware (body, wires, screens etc), shape, size, codes and everything you can think of.

Who is a Medical Device Designer?

A Medical Device Designer takes care of all the things necessary to develop a profitable and useful medical device, like mechanically handling and carving the physical aspects of the tool, devising codes and generating software applications for the tool to run on, delving into research, and finding out which products do their customers prefer and lastly taking care of the aesthetics.

The Process for Designing Medical Devices

Let’s get straight to the process, keep in mind this process will just be a general overview that can be understood by a general reader. Different firms might use different processes but the base remains the same.

Here it is:

1. Specification: This is the first step which involves creating lists and mining data for the critical requirements and the aspirational requirements of the medical device. The medical device designer might also look into specific regulations involved while developing and selling the device.

For example, in the US, the FDA approves three classes of medical devices:

a) Class 1: Simple products that carry no risks.

b) Class 2: For complicated products that carry some risks.

c) Class 3: For products with maximum risks and intricate designs.

2) The Concept: This is a rather complicated step. It involves visualization of the design, shape and aesthetics of the product. The medical device designer team might make sketches and storyboards to bring their ideas on paper. You might consider this as the first draft.

3) 3D CAD models: 3D CAD models give a more realistic view of medical device design. They are made after the rough sketches and the complete idea of the design has been confirmed. 3D CAD models are computer generated and give a holistic view of the designer to the medical device designer. 3D CAD models can be printed by 3D printers and can be used for simulations.

4) The Prototype: This is the step when you get to see your product in front of your eyes. The product can be made through different processes depending on the requirements. The general processes are:

. Balloon blowing

. Tipping

. Laser welding

. Injection moulding

. Bonding

. 3D printing

. Film welding

5) Iterations: After the prototype is made, the medical device designers might run several simulations and real-time tests to see if there are any anomalies in the design or can the design be made better.

6) Production: Afte the final prototype has been approved, the product will go for general testing and beta testing. The testing process takes some time and after that, the regular manufacture of the product is done.

Risks associated with Medical Device Design

The medical device designer has to consider many risks before and after designing the product, some of them are:

1) The design process is costly and risky.

2) Whether the product might be successful or not.

3) User-related risks include poor translation of user requirements or unmet user needs/requirements.

4) Internal risks are due to the lack of application of adequate standards to check device performance; poor consideration of the effect of labelling and packaging; or poor communication among device developers, end-users, and marketing.

5) Third party-related sources of risks may include lack of training for end-users; improper or poor assessment of progress by reviewers; and poor planning for regulatory and clinical approvals and tests.

Hope this helps!

The reason for BV is the disruption of the normal levels of healthy vaginal bacteria and the growth of bad bacteria, in many cases the Gardnerella.

How to identify Bacterial vaginosis?

Usually, the condition can be identified by the following symptoms:

• The unusual smell from vaginal discharge than observed under normal circumstances

• Itching, in some patients

• Thick greyish white discharge, different from healthy vaginal discharge

Antibiotics for BV can treat this condition with efficacy to a large extent.

How do doctors identify Bacterial vaginosis?

Doctors may perform one or many of the following depending on the severity of the condition:

• Physical examination by taking a closer view of the vagina and its inners and surroundings

• Insert fingers into the pelvis to examine the root problem

• Suggest laboratory testing of vaginal secretions

• Suggest the testing for pH of vaginal discharge to identify the cause and the type of bacteria that is causing the infection

What are the Antibiotics for BV treatment?

Metronidazole, Clindamycin, Tinidazole are the most used antibiotics for BV. The suggestion of antibiotics varies from patient to patient and severity and type of the infection.

Metronidazole is a tablet or a pill to be taken orally. Doctors also suggest gel based on the same formula for local application. In some patients, this might cause abdominal pain and nausea.

Clindamycin is a local application cream. Doctors might suggest refraining from intercourse during the usage of this cream for better results.

Tinidazole is a pill and can cause stomach upset and nausea as side effects. Doctors suggest refraining from alcohol to alleviate these side effects.

Effects of Bacterial vaginosis in Pregnant women

Various researches have been done on pregnant women and Bacterial vaginosis conditions. The risk of BV is more in pregnant women owing to hormonal changes. However, in severe untreated conditions, it may lead to the premature birth or death of the fetus.

Antibiotics for BV when taken under doctors’ guidance helped reduce the risk of late-term miscarriages in pregnant women. Also, there have not many side effects that were observed when antibiotics are taken as per the doctor’s suggestions. Added, there is no conclusive evidence of the impact of antibiotics on a baby’s health in any way.

The efficiency of antibiotics for BV

Depending on the severity of the condition, doctors suggest one or more of the antibiotics mentioned above. In many women, there has been no recurrence after 2 weeks of usage. In some cases, the infection reappeared after a year or so. This gives a conclusion that the condition Bacterial vaginosis cannot be cured permanently however antibiotics can give relief to a larger extent and prevent the occurrence shortly.

Treating sexual partners for Bacterial vaginosis

Studies showed that the chances of spreading Bacterial vaginosis are minimal between a female and a male sexual partner. However, there is a high probability of contracting the infection from one female sexual partner to another.

Side effects of antibiotics for Bacterial vaginosis

Antibiotics such as creams and tablets will not only show the effect on harmful bacteria such as Gardnerella but also impact normal healthy vaginal bacteria too. They kill healthy bacteria that are useful in maintaining the health of the vagina. Pills that treat BV can cause nausea and stomach pain in some patients.

Effect of lactic acid on BV

Some medical experts believe that lactic acid can helps treating bacterial vaginosis faster. However, in general, lactic acid can promote the health of vaginal functioning and help to maintain its normal functionality.

When should you approach a doctor for diagnosing BV?

• Best consult your doctor when you are not during your periods.

• Also, if the date is expected too soon, it might hamper the assessment as discharges shall be more as the menstrual date approaches.

• Importantly, do not use strong deodorants and other chemicals that may hinder the assessment of the condition.

• It is also suggested to refrain from physical intercourse 24 hours before doctor consultation.

Conclusion

Bacterial vaginosis is a common condition in most women. The condition is curable under medical supervision using creams and oral pills. Some women might experience nausea and stomach discomfort during the treatment. Pregnant women should seek immediate medical help at any sight of the symptoms and should never use any medicines without a doctor’s advice.