What does rare mean in urine bacteria?

Rare refers to having a single positive culture in a lab test. A urine culture is a test to see if there are bacteria in your urine. When there is a single positive result in a lab test for bacteria, it’s referred to as “rare”. It does not indicate any symptoms or infection.

What does rare mean in urine culture growth?

Of the 100 or so bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections ( utis , around 10 to 20 species are responsible for 80 to 90 percent of infections. The remaining species are called “rare”. Researchers use the term “rare” to describe bacteria that cause less than 5 percent of infections.

What does rare mean in urine infection?

“Rare” is a relative term. Rare is defined as a condition or disease that affects less than one in 100 people in a given population. Rare bacteria in urine is defined as a total count of bacteria less than five per mL. This number might sound low, but in a population of 100 people, there could be as few as five people with the infection.

What does rare mean in urine culture?

Rare bacteria refers to those that are present in the urine culture in numbers less than 10 colony-forming units (CFU). This is much lower than the normal population of bacteria which is more than 10 million CFU per milliliter of urine. The normal urinary tract flora consists of harmless bacteria that help to protect and maintain a healthy urinary tract.

What does rare mean in a urine culture?

Most cultures will return results in a few days. If the result is still pending after a week, it may indicate infection. However, some bacteria are slow growers and can take up to two weeks to show up in a urine culture. If the bacteria grow slowly but consistently, or if you have a urine infection, you may need to repeat the culture in two weeks.