Antibiotics: Introduction
You feel lousy, your nose is runny-stuffy, your head hurts so-o-o-o bad & you’re dead tired to even attempt at doing anything minimally important… just haunted by that one and only thought –> go crawl into that comfy, warm, lulling bed of yours…
The given symptomatic description is more than eloquent…
Cold?? Flu?? Sore throat?? Indeed. But! Think twice before rushing to the nearest drugstore to grab some antibiotics… they are not a suitable treatment for viral illnesses of any kind. Moreover, taking antibiotics in vain, with no effect whatsoever and when not needed can be harmful.
Now let’s answer some root questions… What are antibiotics? How to choose the right antibiotic? What are indications and contraindications for antibiotics’ use? What is antibiotic resistance and how to overcome it?
An antibiotic is a halfly or fully microorganism-derivative compound used to fight against fungal and bacterial infections… unable, however, to handle viruses.
Antibiotics whether have a killing-destructive action - microorganisms are eliminated or a blocking action - no further reproduction of microorganisms is possible. Therefore, the body mobilizes its natural defensive forces to exterminate the “culprit”.
The majority of infections are either bacteria-rooted (certain ear infections, streptococcus throat, urinary tract infections, severe sinus infections, skin and wounds infections) or virus-rooted (most ear infections, flu, cold, bronchitis, sore throats, stomach flu) rooting.
If a virus launched your illness – antibiotics can’t help.
Some infections are easy to decipher, i.e., doctors know beforehand that the bunch of bacterium X is responsible for occurrence of infections Y. In such cases the appropriate antibiotic treatment scheme is elaborated and implemented right away.
But there are more puzzling infections that complicate the choosing routine - they may be caused either by various, non-family bacterium or by an obvious bacterium whose sensitivity to antibiotics is yet to be checked. A guaranteed prediction is hardly possible and guessing is no good… What to do? The answer is - Lab Tests – gather some blood, tissue or urine samples and wait for the laboratory personnel to determine and specify the unknown bacterium or test the already known one for antibiotics susceptibility. A couple of waiting days and the perfectly illness-matching treatment can be started.
It is worth mentioning, however, that antibiotics tested in a lab environment do not necessarily duplicate their behaviour in an infected person. Some important treatment process characteristics affect the ultimate degree of antibiotic effectiveness. “Is the drug wholly or partially absorbed into the bloodstream?”, “What amounts of the drug actually got to the infected area?”, “How long does it take your body to eliminate the drug?”… Answers to these questions represent significant correction data your doctor should take into consideration when prescribing an antibiotic… Along with the potential side-effect dangers, possible allergies to ingredients, the price of the drug and the seriousness/unseriousness of treated infection.
Some severe or unmanageable infections require a combination of two or more antibiotics in order to achieve the status “Cured”. Such doubling or tripling of antibiotic types in one treatment scheme is also a lossless option when a bacterium’s susceptibility to antibiotics is not yet established or when a bacterium is too quick in developing resistance to 1 single antibiotic or when 2 different bacteria responding to 2 different antibiotics are responsible for the occurrence of 1 mutual infection.
Resisting the Antibiotics
Since “Bacterium” is alive it has the properties of a live organism, such as the “changing and adjusting” ability, manifested each time a new environmental challenge is confronted. Antibiotics are used so widely and sometimes so unwisely in the modern society that there is room and potential for such adaptative alterations. Of course, many bacteria die when antibiotic-stormed but some manage to survive and develop a resistance to the assaulting drug. For instance, the famous Staphylococcus Aureus bacterium was initially extremely sensitive to penicillin action. This was about 50 years ago. In the course of the last half-century Staphylococcus Aureus strains evolved and progressively developed an enzyme capable of neutralizing penicillin action. Therefore, it became no longer effective in treating this specific bacterium. Then followed the elaboration of enzyme-proof penicillin modifications… But it took the staphylococcus bacteria only a couple of years each time to re-adapt and find a new loophole to split penicillin again.
Unfortunately, there are way too many antibiotic-resistant bacteria nowadays. A seemingly never-ending battle between medical progress in the field of antibiotic betterment and most tenacious or most flexible bacteria continues.
If you wish to preserve yourself from turning into a fruitful soil for antibiotic-resistant bacteria - make sure to take these medications only when 100% necessary and for the full prescribed course.
Taking Antibiotics
Now, how to “insert” these infection-fighters into your body? It depends on how severe is the bacterial infection… If a lot – an injection method is preferable, if not – an oral path would do just wonderfully.
For how long should you take antibiotics? …For as long as it takes to kill and oust the infecting organism. Therefore, you might need to continue popping your pills even if illness symptoms are no longer apparent.
The shortest antibiotic treatment period counts down to 5 days minimum (except for certain non-complicated urinary tract infections).
An untimely, “too soon” cessation of antibiotic treatment can lead to infection relapse or development & breeding of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
When should you take antibiotics? Ask your doctor, nurse or the nearest pharmacist to provide you with all the necessary details and directions concerning the intake of your specific antibiotic. You might need to take them with food or on an empty stomach, once, twice or 3 times a day etc.
Avoid interacting antibiotics with other drugs unless your doctor tells you otherwise. Also, don’t mix antibiotics with alcohol. Such imprudent combinations may somewhat dampen the effectiveness of antibiotics or, worse, amplify the intensity of side-effects.
Preventive Antibiotics
As it turned out, apart from being worthy “infection-fighters”, antibiotics can also be “infection-preventers”.
For instance, people exposed to a meningitis patient, whether officially contaminated or not, can be given antibiotics to nip the potential danger in the very bud.
Also, people with artificial or abnormal heart valves are prescribed antibiotics prior to any dental or surgical manipulations to prevent bacteria penetration into the impaired valves with their further infecting.
Leukemia patients, chemotherapeutic patients and AIDS infected patients can be as well given prophylactic antibiotics to support their strongly weakened immune system.
Prophylactic antibiotic therapy is only used as a short-term anti-bacteria measure. Otherwise, the rate of effectiveness can drop down or resistance in bacteria – develop.
Usually, there are no complications or troubles whatsoever when undergoing antibiotic therapy in home surroundings. The pills are taken by mouth and this is no sophisticated doing. However, some severe infections, such as bone- and heart- involving infections (osteomyelitis, endocarditis) for instance, require prolonged (up to 4-6 weeks) intravenous injection of antibiotics. If the are no other weighty arguments for tying the treated patient to a hospital bed – intravenous antibiotic administration may be performed at home.
Short intravenous (IV) catheters lasting about 3 days and inserted into small arm/hand veins or a special long-lasting type of IV catheter inserted into the large central vein, or other injecting devices may be needed. The whole pre-injection, injection and post-injection process should be supervised by a trained family member or a professional – a medical nurse. Watch out for possible complications (e.g., catheter-related infections) and side-effects.
Antibiotic Side-Effects and Allergies
Among commonest “mild-action antibiotics” side-effects are: upset stomach, diarrhea, colitis, inflammation of the large intestine, allergic reactions (from mild to severe) and vaginal yeast infections in women. Stronger-acting antibiotics may also cause a disrupt of kidney, liver, bone marrow or other organs’ function.
Monitoring for such adverse reactions is performed through regular blood testing.