Infections

Some of the more common types of infections are bacterial, viral, staph and urinary tract infections.

Certain types of bacteria are helpful.  They can serve such purposes as helping one digest food, supply the body needed vitamins and destroy disease-causing cells.  However, others can make you ill. These can reproduce in your body and give off toxins which can damage tissue and make you sick. While antibiotics are the usual treatment, each time you take antibiotics, you increase the chances that the bacteria in your body will become resistant to them later.

Viruses are tiny and much smaller than bacteria. Viruses cause diseases such as the common cold, the flu and warts, to much more severe illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and smallpox. Viruses are like hijackers. They invade living, normal cells and use those cells to multiply and produce other viruses like themselves. This eventually kills the cells, which can make you sick.

Viral infections are hard to treat because viruses live inside your body’s cells where they are “protected” from medicines. Antibiotics do not work for viral infections. However, vaccines can help prevent you from getting many viral diseases.

Funguses are at the root cause of athlete’s foot or a yeast infection. While fungi live in the air, in soil, on plants and in water, some live in the human body. Fungal infections often start in the lungs or on the skin.

The body’s drainage system for removing wastes and extra water, the urinary system, is made up of your kidneys, the ureters, the bladder and the urethra. An infection in any part of the urinary system, a urinary tract infection (UTI), is the second most common type of infection in the body.

If you experience any of the following symptoms, you may have a UTI:

• Pain or burning when you urinate
• Fever, tiredness or shakiness
• An urge to urinate often
• Pressure in your lower belly
• Urine that smells bad or looks cloudy or reddish
• Pain in your back or side below the ribs

Our well-trained providers at Your Doc’s In are available on a walk-in basis and without an appointment to meet your health care needs. Services at our walk-in centers are available at all our clinics by our friendly, personable and capable staff.

We are open seven days a week with extended hours in some of our clinics. Care is provided for infants all the way through adults. And most insurance plans are accepted. Whether you are visiting the Ocean City area or a resident on the Delmarva Peninsula, take advantage of the services offered at Your Doc’s In. Your Doc’s In, “For Life’s Little Emergencies”. Proudly serving the community on the Eastern Shore since 2005.