Answer:
Hopefully ,this question will be answered by infectious disease experts, but for the time being a certain amount of caution must be related. Without a proper diagnosis, it is impossible to be certain you have a bacterial infection. Since the question was originally posed to womens health, I assumed urinary and vaginal infections.
Urinary tract infections are very difficult to get rid of without antibiotics. Unless you live in a foreign country where you do not need a prescription, you will need to see a doctor/clinic to get a prescription. Several antibiotics work on bugs in the urinary tract such as Cipro, Bactrim, Septra DS, Keflex, Macrobid and macrodantin. Again...unless you have a diagnosis, not all of these will work for every bacterial infection. And, many people have had life threatening allergic reactions to these and other drugs. It is very RISKY to self-prescribe and treat with powerful antibiotics. There are over the counter medications that you can purchase that will help relieve some of the pain of the infection such as AZO Standard. You can also drink lots of cranberry juice and water and practice measures to avoid getting the urinary tract infection to begin with. Practices include: urinating within 5-15 minutes after sexual intercourse and washing thoroughly before and after sexual play...assuring your partner is clean and virtuous doesn't hurt either!! Also, make a point of pee-ing every 3 to 4 hours....on a regular basis and stay hydrated...avoid dehydration like the plague. You want to bathe your urethra (pipe between bladder and the outside world) often.
Vaginal bacterial infections are serious as well and need a doctor! I have heard of people taking wash rags and using female soap to make it foamy and washing/rinsing the entire inside of the vagina...this is no way assures riddance of any infection and can certainly cause irritation. Depending on the type of discharge you have, a doctor may decide you do not have a bacterial infection...it may be fungal, semi-bacterial (chlamydia...which is an STD on the rise that causes pelvic inflammatory disease and sterilization) or protozoan...
At any rate, docs can often tell just by examining you, so no need for expensive lab tests. Since MANY irritations are STD's...venereal diseases....it is not a good idea to listen to ideas you get from "the street" or friends. You need a doc. City and county health departments will diagnose and treat for free if you are unable to pay. I would not wait on this...go... ...because you do not want to be sterile or have pelvic pain or possibly infect other people.