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When this occurs, it’s called asymptomatic bacteriuria, or AB.

The task force concluded last month that for virtually everyone except pregnant women, screening for and treating asymptomatic bacteriuria provides no benefit and has potential harms.

But studies have shown that with asymptomatic bacteriuria, withholding antibiotics doesn’t endanger patients.

Yet such test results, signifying what’s known in doctor-talk as asymptomatic bacteriuria, frequently lead to unnecessary treatment with antibiotics.

In the Michigan hospital study, patients treated for asymptomatic bacteriuria fared no better on a variety of measures than those who weren’t treated.