Amoxicillin and my cold?

Question

I have had this cold for about 5-6 weeks now. My cough has never gone away, and occasionally I feel very sick and feverish. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the antibiotic that I've been taking for 3 weeks now.

I saw an ENT specialist at the 2nd/3rd week of my cold (but not for the cold but for my nasal congestion). He said I had a nasal infection which caused the nasal congestion. He prescribed Amoxicillin. I took it for three weeks. During all this time, my cold never went away and the coughing continued.

My question is, can an antibiotic make it difficult for my body to recover from a cold?

Answer 1

We inadvertently kill off the good microbes in our body with antibiotics. Since antibiotics are necessary for killing the bad microbes that cause some diseases, they are important for helping to keep people healthy. However, the side effect to taking antibiotics is the elimination of the good microbes within our body along with the bad ones.
We’re now finding that eliminating all the good microbes from our body results in a weaker immune system, which we believe is leading to problems such as increased incidence of chronic disease, including allergies like asthma. Once you take antibiotics as your physician prescribed, follow it with some form of probiotic supplement to get the microflora in your gut back to where it should be. Your recovery and your health will be much greater.”

Since probiotic microbes do not cause disease, there’s no such thing as having too much of them.

Answer 2

A cold only lasts from 7 to 10 days and you won't get a fever with a cold. It sounds like you don't have a cold but rather an upper respiratory infection which is not clearing up. Post nasal drip causes your cough. Since you are sick and feverish after 3 weeks on Amoxicillin, you should go back to the ENT doctor. He might change your antibiotic to one that is more effective for you. (An antibiotic will not make it more difficult for you to recover from a cold.)

Answer 3

NO.You need to go back to a doctor and get a stronger antibiotic, because your body will get immune to an antibiotic after 14 days. See if you can get Zithromax.It's a 5 day dose.
Good Luck.

Answer 4

Taking antibiotics for three days is just as effective for community acquired pneumonia as continuing treatment for the recommended 7-10 days, finds a study in this week's BMJ. Shorter treatment can also help contain growing resistance rates.

The study raises questions about the optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for common infections.

Community acquired pneumonia is one of the most important indications for antibiotic prescriptions in hospitals. But a lack of evidence to support short course therapy means it has become accepted practice to continue treatment for days after symptoms have improved.

Researchers in the Netherlands compared the effectiveness of discontinuing treatment with amoxicillin after three days or eight days in adults admitted to hospital with mild to moderate-severe community acquired pneumonia.

119 patients who substantially improved after the conventional three days' treatment with intravenous amoxicillin were randomly assigned to oral amoxicillin (63 patients) or placebo (56 patients) three times daily for five days. Patients were assessed at days 7, 10 (two days after treatment ended), 14, and 28.

In the three day and eight day treatment groups, the clinical success rate at day 10 was 93% for both, and at day 28 was 90% compared with 88%. Both groups had similar resolution of symptoms, x-ray results, and length of hospital stay.

These findings show that discontinuing amoxicillin treatment after three days is not inferior to discontinuing it after eight days in adults with mild to moderate-severe community acquired pneumonia who have substantially improved after an initial three days' treatment, say the authors.

A shorter duration of treatment can also help to reduce overall antibiotic consumption and resistance rates for respiratory infections, they conclude.

This study suggests that current guidelines recommending 7-10 days should be revised, says Dr John Paul from the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in an accompanying commentary.

Not only does the study yield strong evidence in favour of short course therapy for a subset of patients with community acquired pneumonia, but also shows how centres can cooperate to tackle longstanding areas of uncertainty in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases, he writes. Many other common clinical situations would repay the efforts of comparable approaches.

Answer 5

you might have more than a cold. get an std test

Answer 6

No, your immune system requires boosting up, he has given drug of choice, you will have to take high protein diet.