When we have a virus, and we go to the doctor, many of us insist upon being treated for the virus.?

Question

How are antibiotics being misused in our society?

Answer 1

Antibiotics fight bacteria, not virus; so this is indeed a dangerous problem when people ask for antibiotic all the time, as this just gives an opportunity for pathogens that are not already virulent to learn to fight off and resist said antibiotics. Next thing you'll know, the antibiotic resistant bacteria will meet with a dangerous one, will mutate and become virulent, dangerous AND antibiotic resistant.

Answer 2

It's called antibiotic immunity.

First antibiotics are only useful against bacteriological infections. So if you have a viral infection like the flu then it won't do any you any good. Doctors used to hand them out to patients figuring that they wouldn't do any harm.

However, when the body fights an infection their are usually some survivors left over. When a patient doesn't take their entire dose of medication then other survivors remain. These survivors don't bother the host very much since there body's defense systems are wise to them.

Once those survivors get lose into the wide wide world then all bets are off. If they find a host that isn't as well protected against them then the survivors get very busy and give the new host body a real run for their lives. If the diseases get lucky enough then they can kill their host. These survivors are too tough to be treated with standard antiviral or antibacteriological so the doctors have to resort to using older ones, or more dangerous ones.

The result is that there are more deaths and stronger bugs out there looking for someone else to kill. If we aren’t careful then we are going to run out of treatment options to handle them. Then bugs like the mumps, the measles, polio and other disease long thought busted can come back and become the great killers that they were in the past.

Answer 3

Remember: viruses and bacteria are 2 different things!
Antibiotics don't have an effect on viruses, only on bacteria. And because people expected the physician (in the past;now the doctors are educating the patient more often) to give them a pill rather than do the correct thing and tell them to go home, rest, and increase fluids , the physicians feared malpractice suits/loss of patients. Therefore the patients received antibiotics.
Overuse of antibiotics led to the development of antibiotic- resistant bacteria, such as MRSA and VRE.These are some scary bacteria.
Fortunately, the trend of giving antibiotics wholesale is reversing. Hope it's not too late......

Answer 4

its because everyone demands medicine when they are sick and never stop to think that most viru are untreatable and the doctor does not want to get a bad name for not handing out the meds. so there they go taking meds to satisfy the mind and not to cure the body

Answer 5

Hi. An anti-biotic would only help with secondary bacterial infections.