22 Jul 2020

The strength of science cannot be under estimated in providing answers to many underlying phenomena.

And medicine being one branch of science has for decades kept humankind afloat. In medicine the process of unraveling diseases or certain conditions starts with diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Many people especially in Africa die silently knowing or not knowing that science has a solution to some of the diseases they suffer.

Men are mostly the victims because they are reluctant to visit health facilities.

There are many curable diseases which are hidden or considered shameful. People would rather visit traditional healers for ‘cleansing’ when they experience some difficulties more especially around the male reproductive part.

If you ask such people as to whether they have ever visited hospitals or consulted urologists or general practitioners, the answer is no. One such disease is Cystitis which is said to have taken many lives but it is curable.

Cystitis is urinary bladder inflammation which can be caused by infection causes (most commonly) or non-infectious causes such as radiation cystitis, immune cystitis and interstitial cystitis a condition that could be called in vernacular as “go ruruga ga mosele o o ntshang metsi kana motlhapo kana o dira gore motlhapo o tswele thateng ha motho a itlhoma.”

An urologist at Bokamoso Private Hospital, Dr Daou Gdeh said cystitis is curable depending on the cause, stating that if it is caused by infection then it is treated by antibiotics in the likes of anti-inflammatory.

Dr Gdeh said in an interview that the symptoms are very common as the patient would feel the burning urination, urge to urinate, bad smelly urine, lower abdominal pains and or less commonly blood stained urine. The patient must go to the nearest clinic or hospital to do urine test and start empiric antibiotic course.

He said usually the urine test takes 48 to 72 hours for the results to come out and depending on the results the antibiotic could be changed.

On whether the disease could be transmitted through sexual intercourse from a male to a female or verse versa, Dr Gdeh said cystitis is not sexually transmitted, but rather urethritis is the one which is sexually transmitted as both conditions are caused by different micro-organisms.

He however said sexual intercourse itself could introduce the micro-organism into the bladder of the female partner by the mechanical force (pushing the organisms through the short female urethra) and it is therefore advisable that women empty their bladders shortly after intercourse, especially those women who experience recurrent urinary tract infections (recurrent cystitis).

Regarding the age prone to cystitis, he said the disease could affect any age, but said more common to people who have reached the age of 50 and beyond.

He said the disease affect all gender but women are more on the receiving end due to their physical structure such as the short urethra and said expecting women are at more risk.

Regarding the statistics of the disease in Botswana, Dr Gdeh said he attend to 20-30 patients in a month which translates to around 360 patients annually.

He said the costs are not that much though it is not cheap, stating that the cost could only increase in cases of chronic or recurrent cystitis as more investigations would be needed like radiology and therapeutic investigation such as cystoscopy or prostrate surgery when it has enlarged.

In an interview a former cystitis patient said the condition was embarrassing as urine could trickle anywhere, anytime.

He said in most cases patients wet their pants without noticing.

After suffering for a while a friend told him that the condition could be rectified that is when he visited an urologist who performed an optic urethrotomy (laser) or HOLEP (laser Turp).

He encourages people to be open when having conditions which they do not understand rather than dying in silence. ENDS