Your Patient Has Been on Antibiotics for 6 Weeks After

Multiple Choice

Your patient has been on antibiotics for 6 weeks after a case of streptococcal endocarditis, an infection of the inner heart wall. The infection clears up. However, the patient just visited you about a urinary tract infection, and the lab verified that the culprit was E. coli. What do you hypothesize happened in this situation?

A) The lab has made a mistake in identifying the cause, and, in fact, the UTI was caused by the original Streptococcus.
B) The lab has made a mistake in identifying the cause, and, in fact, the endocarditis was caused by the E. coli.
C) Her normal microbiota in the genitourinary tract were killed, allowing E. coli (not killed by the antibiotics) to establish an infection.
D) The antibiotics damaged her immune system, making her very susceptible to environmental bacteria.