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In Remembrance
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SE Kansas.
Posts: 374
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In Remembrance
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SE Kansas.
Posts: 374
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I'm very concerned about future health problems that people being prescribed antibiotics, simply in the hope that they might help patients with other problems or "just to be on the safe side". It isn't on the safe side.
Antibiotics are antibactrials and of no use whatsoever in treating viruses, so if the physician is prescribing them without a specific bacterial diagnosis she/he may be setting that patient up for major problems in the future.
In the past 50 years, nearly all of the bacteria that cause significan infections in humans have become resistant to antibiotics that were once very effective, and it is only going to get worse.
Ten years from now, someone currently taking an antibiotic "as a precaution" will be infected by the bacteria that the antibiotic they are now taking is intended to treat. Their immune system is adapting to the antibiotic, learning to rely upon it, and when the bacteria actually arrives, the immune response to it will be delayed.
The antibiotic they are now taking will be much less effective against the infection in ten years, so the patient suffers a "double whammy"; a compromised immune system and an antibiotic that won't work as well; or may not work at all.
The National Institutes of Health have declared that over prescription and imprecise prescription (the wrong drug for a specific bacteria) of antibiotics is a national health crisis.
In the past two decades we have seen the emergence of "super-bacteria" that are resistant to all of the antibiotics that once stopped them in their tracks. At one time pharmaceutical companies invested a lot of money in developing new drugs to fight these super-bacteria, but they didn't get the return they expected on their investment.
Today there is only one new antibiotic in the testing pipeline. Just one. When the crisis really hits, these companies will begin testing new and more powerful antibiotics. By that time we can expect that people will be dying by the thousands because nothing can stop their infections. People will be willing to pay any price for a cure and companies will have the financial incentive to provide those cures. But it takes years to bring a new drug to market.
Today, physicians who take good histories and listen carefully to their patients can often diagnose a specific bacterial infection without having to wait for the results of a culture, making it possible to intervene with the right antibiotic two to three days earlier than in the past.
If that isn't possible in some specific cases, a culture should be required. The last thing you should do is take an antibiotic that isn't prescribed to treat a specific bacterial infection. It probably won't hurt you to take it; TODAY. The odds are that it could very well hurt or even kill you five or ten years from now.
I urge you to consult a second physician to learn whether you really should be taking that antibiotic unless is has a specific bacterial target...Vic
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