Snuffling? Sneezing? Looking for relief from that cold? Whatever else you may be taking this winter, please do all of us a favor-don’t reach for those antibiotics you may have saved up in the medicine cabinet. You may be doing yourself (and others) more harm than good.

MANY DANGEROUS INFECTIONS are becoming immune to the most powerful drugs in a doctor’s arsenal - antibiotics.

Over the years, we’ve all become accustomed to using too many antibiotics, too often - hundreds of millions of doses each year. In response to the flood of antibiotics, bacteria have mutated and developed resistance to the drugs that once brought them to their knees. Today, antibiotic resistance is a national public-health problem that’s worrying experts from the Centers for Disease Control as well as general practitioners. It is a health threat you can help prevent. Health officials say overuse of antibiotics is not the only problem. People also misuse them, by not taking the full course that is prescribed or by taking pills left over from a previous prescription. That gives bugs a chance to develop resistance to the drugs.

ANTIBIOTICS

Antibiotics are among the most powerful and important medicines known. When used properly, they can save lives. Used improperly, they can actually harm your child. Antibiotics should not be used to treat viral infections. Two main types of germs - bacteria and viruses - cause most infections. In fact, viruses cause most coughs and sore throats and all colds. Bacterial infections can be cured by antibiotics, but common viral infections never are. Your child recovers from these common viral infections when the illness has run its course. New strains of bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics. These bacteria are not killed by the antibiotic. Some of these resistant bacteria can be treated with more powerful medicines, which may need to be given through the veins in a hospital, and a few are already untreatable. The more antibiotics prescribed, the higher the chance that your child will be infected with resistant bacteria.

Each time we take antibiotics, sensitive bacteria are killed, but resistant ones may be left to grow and multiply. Repeated use and improper use of antibiotics are some of the main causes of the increase in resistant bacteria. These resistant bacteria can also be spread to others in the family and community.

WHAT’S NEXT?

A government advisory panel is now urging final approval of a new antibiotic to fight drug-resistant bacteria. It’s a French drug, Synercid, that is proving effective against some dangerous infections when nothing else will work. That doesn’t mean the problem is solved and we can relax. It simply means this new drug is proving effective right now when nothing else will work.

Thanks to the World Health Organisation
for much of this information.