Heal thyself ping.
Doubtful. Doctors are not pressured by average people for drugs, when they very well know the drugs won’t do anything.
Sometimes doctors are worried secondary infections (by bacteria) will set in due to the primary viral infection.
Sometimes it is because all doctors today are only trained to treat illnesses with prescription drugs. Person has x, exhibiting symptoms a,b,c, treat with drug y. Hardly have any naturopathic doctors out there.
Sometimes because it’s the quickest way to get a person in and out the door because the doctor is overworked and has a large case load of patients to deal with, and its SOP to throw antibiotics at certain illnesses.
Or they can not treat the patients, and the bacterial infections grow stronger and get spread to the community requiring more and more antibiotics to be used.
I say resistance is caused by underuse of antibiotics. Use antibiotics and kill the infections. Culture and make sure the antibiotics are effective for the bug you are treating. (Remember when that was routine?) Quarantine serious infections and use good hygiene and good ventilation systems and you won’t have to worry about resistance.
Don’t worry guys,, Obamacare is on the way. Soon there will no longer be a problem of too much medicine being prescribed.
I know over prescribing antibiotics is a problem but the opposite is also true some times.
My Mother was in the hospital and dying from something like pneumonia. They changed doctors because the current one went on vacation. The old Dr. who was just about to retire, gave Mother an antibiotic and she almost immediately starting getting better.
As a concidence, I have one of these bugs as we speak. It lives in me. Never going to completely get rid of it. My problem is I work too hard, get weak, and when it starts to cool off outside I come down with it. I come down with it every year, for the last 5, about this time of the year. It will last for 4-6 weeks. I feel terrible. Still work too hard. Not enough sleep. Not eating well, or at all.
So if my posts get crazier, or dumber, it’s just the delirium.
Hard to believe. 30 years ago, believing that would be a benefit, I asked for same and was quickly corrected by the doctor. My asthma is properly corrected these days.
Too many people just don’t know the difference between a virus and bacteria, and insist upon antibiotics because they know the word. Mothers are especially guilty of this. The problem is receding as awareness increases regarding antibiotic resistance, but this is one of the prime reasons for that resistance. The other reason is failing to complete the course of the drug, leaving bacteria alive that have survived the antibiotic, which then go on to reproduce like crazy, and do not respond to the particular antibiotic to which they were exposed but not killed.
I seriously try to avoid antibiotics myself, for all but the serious infections such as strep or staph. There are perfectly fine, natural antimicrobials that should serve as the front line, starting with garlic. Topical would be tea tree oil. Your kitchen is filled with natural antimicrobials. Salt, sugar, honey, vinegar, two thirds of the average spice rack. Just take the time to learn, and leave the antibiotics for the serious stuff, to help avoid further resistance. We’re down to, what, Cipro and one other now? There’s going to be something ugly of near-plague proportions if we don’t reign it in now, and conserve the remaining effective medications we have.
Doctors frequently misuse antibiotics when treating patients hospitalized with respiratory tract infectionsThey chop 'em up and snort 'em! ;')
Give them a yogurt daily.
Many doctors prescribe antibiotics just to get their winey,demanding patients off their backs.Plus,in most third world countries (like Mexico and India) illiterate knuckledraggers can walk into any shop in town and buy an antibiotic for a few pennies when they don’t need it.And yet many wonder why diseases that were easily cured with antibiotics a decade ago are now resistant to everything we have.
besides...if you get admitted to a hospital you've got to be pretty bad off.....and starting antibiotics initially is routine and also part of a nationwide standard for pneumonia..
This is about patient who are HOSPITALIZED with respiratory infections.
The MDs prescribe antibiotics in these situaions to hellp prevent a bacterial infection from taking advantage of the virally-weakened individual.
What is not mentioned is that many of the viral infections are accompanied by bacterial infections that are cured by the antibiotics. So the viral sinus infection will “go away” in two weeks, but the hellish sore throat is cured by the antibiotic.
One wonders what the clowns are smoking.
Look at the source — University of CHICAGO. No more money for health care PING! Get strep throat and die PING!
Yup. Also this wonderful thing in the ER called “patient satisfaction surveys”. Your job and paycheck are dependent on good surveys. Usually they only survey a handful of patients for any given period. Get a couple of bad surveys and you are in trouble. Patient wants antibiotics and you don’t write the Rx? Bad survey. Patient wants narcotic pain meds? Ditto. Didn’t order the test they wanted? Ditto. This BS is making it impossible to practice good medicine.