Quote:
Originally Posted by Flatbutt1
I may not be reading your post correctly, but the resistance to ABs is not on your part but rather on the bugs'.
If the bug is resistant then it doesn't matter how often a patient has taken the drug. As I say, I may have mis-read your post.
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But if antibiotics are given more frequently, then drug-resistance will evolve more quickly. By using antibiotics, we may be killing the susceptible bugs, but we're also naturally-selecting out the resistant ones. So, of the bacteria that are left behind (after we come swashbuckling through with antibiotics), a greater relative percentage of them are of the resistant type. If we're using antibiotics needlessly (i.e. to treat conditions that aren't caused by bacteria, or if the antibiotic selection doesn't match the bacterium strain responsible for whatever infection we're trying to treat), then we're offering no possible benefit to the patient, but only selecting out (and perpetuating) the resistant bugs already out there.
That's where physicians have a responsibility to the general population. Don't use antibiotics if there's not a proper indication for them. Because it can actually do harm to society, as an evolutionary whole. And as a patient, you've got to understand that if a doctor doesn't prescribe you an antibiotic (for a good reason), they may not be the useless clod you think they are.