Doctors said that the bladder infection which led to the Duke of Edinburgh being taken to hospital yesterday generally responded rapidly to treatment.
Standing on a windswept boat for nearly four hours on Sunday may have aggravated the Duke’s bladder infection, they said, but would not have caused it.
If he had even minor symptoms on Sunday, the river pageant would have been extremely uncomfortable. Given the Duke’s age — 90 — he may have been admitted to hospital yesterday as a precaution before reaching a more severe level of infection.
Simon Carter, a consultant urologist and medical director of the London Clinic, said: “There is always that old wives’ tale: you get a cold and it causes infections. There is no scientific justification behind that.
“If the Duke of Edinburgh had the infection before the river pageant and then became cold, it might have contributed to the infection.
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“Those are not the best conditions for getting better. The flotilla would have been extraordinarily awkward, because you would need to urinate frequently.”
Given that the Duke smiled almost throughout the boat trip and went below deck only once, for about ten minutes, he may have developed a full-blown infection overnight.
Mark Porter, The Times’s doctor, said: “Simple cystitis does not require hospitalisation, but accompanying high temperatures and flu-like illness suggests a more serious infection that may need intravenous antibiotics — something that is generally only offered in hospital.
“You can’t get a urine infection from standing on a boat in the wind and rain, but the resulting fatigue might exacerbate a problem that was already brewing.
“The outlook is excellent, in that urinary infections generally respond rapidly to treatment, but the doctors looking after Prince Philip are bound to err on the side of caution — and not just because of his age.”
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The condition, known as a urinary tract infection or cystitis, is more common in women because they have a shorter urethra (the tube leading out of the bladder), allowing bacteria to enter more easily.
The infection normally affects men in older age because the urethra can be obstructed by the enlargement of the prostate; the doughnut-shaped gland that sits below the bladder.
If the bladder fails to properly empty, bacteria in the urine that is left behind may cause an infection.
In the vast majority of cases, the condition can be treated at home with a short course of antibiotics and by drinking more fluids to flush out the system.
In more serious cases, however, the infection can spread to the kidneys.
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Patients may develop a fever, flu-like aches and pains, shivers and, in the elderly, confusion. A patient may need treatment in hospital so that they can receive a stronger dose of antibiotics intravenously, typically over a 48-hour period.