Five Reasons Why Antibiotics Don’t Work?

Sunday, 6 December 2015

Antibiotics were first used in 1940s. Since then they have been misused and overused. Firstly many antibiotics are wrongly prescribed, secondly people buy and use without prescriptions, and lastly they are easily available without any prescriptions. Antibiotics are medicines that were developed to treat bacterial infections. Now, many antibiotics don’t work at all and in many cases these are used for viral infections instead of bacterial resulting in worsening the situation.

Bacterial or Viral

First thing is to find out that the symptom or infection is due to bacteria or virus. For example cold and flu symptoms are viral infections and can’t possibly be cured by antibiotics that are developed for killing bacteria only. There are some cases when a bacterial infection can occur after a cold, antibiotics can work in such cases. But many symptoms don’t require antibiotic at all.

The best way is to treat cold symptoms naturally. See 'AAK’s Tried & Tested Tips: Seven Remedies for Nose & Sore Throat Symptoms'

Antibiotic Misuse

Using antibiotic over and over without proper reason causes severe situations and points to the fact that it won’t work when you actually need it for some genuine bacterial infection. New strains of bacteria develop or bacteria are upgraded as less as within 20 minutes that can resist a particular antibiotic.

See the video explaining antibiotic misuse & resistance:

Taken from: youtube.com

Antibiotic Resistance

Unjustified use and over usage of antibiotics has leaded the path towards today’s antibiotics resistance situation. The antibiotics have been misused since they were developed and now the bacteria have become resistant to first and second generation of antibiotic. Even the third generation of antibiotics doesn’t seem to work in many cases. In simple terms, using antibiotic for what it can’t cure makes it effect-less over the period of time. That era has started!

See the video how the bacteria evolve for antibiotic resistance:

Taken from: iflscience.com

Antibiotic Schedule

Not using antibiotics with exact timings, skipping doses and not following doctors’ instructions when using antibiotics result in a non-effective treatment. You may say that I am using antibiotic but it’s not effecting. Not finishing the prescribed doze of antibiotics causes the situation worse. One may feel better during the treatment and can discontinue use of antibiotic. This half treatment and symptom can come again with much more severity. The bacteria that have survived antibiotics multiply and become antibiotic resistant. Once this happens in one person, it can spread in the family, then to the county, and finally it becomes global. This means that we cannot save ourselves by just taking our care or caring our own family.

It’s a vast spreading global crisis!

Man is Man

Who knows the infection is bacterial or viral? Who knows what medicine can cure it? Lab tests result in the prescription of antibiotics but then again it might not work because when antibiotic enters the body it might have to tackle with a new breed of bacteria that are already resistant to it. Who knows what will happen next? Then another lab test followed by more tests? And if finally the disease is cured somehow, what’s the guarantee that it won’t come back again next year? Who knows that exactly?

Man is on the moon

Man is in the space

Man has launched earth surveillance system (See: GPS)

But man can’t control the filth that lies within

It’s time to think

Written by,

Engr. Ayesha Alam Khurram for Pencil Focus