… unless it was prescribed! If you are a healthy individual, the cause of your disease is likely to be viral. Garden variety viral infections usually resolve by themselves without the help of drugs. Anti-virals may be used, but given their price and supposed benefit (you’ll get better a day earlier), it can be considered as something non-cost-effective. Obviously, an antibiotic will not work against a virus. Not only are you wasting your money, you could also be diminishing the effect of that drug in future. Let’s say you won the lottery and you do in fact have a bacterial infection that may be relieved by that antibiotic. Chances are, you will not be taking the drug for its intended full course and you’ll just end up building up the bug’s resistance to medicine after you abruptly discontinue taking the pills.
Just like what was repeatedly emphasized in the five class presentations that I’ve posted earlier, it’s in our best interest to promote and observe rational drug use. I’m sure it definitely makes sense to just about everyone, but unfortunately, a lot of people continue to be in the dark as far as the definition of the word rational is concerned. Amoxicillin (and just about every other over-the-counter antibiotic drug) are easily among the most abused and misused drugs in the world today. For some reason, people who have fever think that self-medicating with amoxicillin helps despite the lack of diagnostics to better localize the focus of infection. To some, this may come across as something totally acceptable. After all, the patient may really be benefited with the use of an antibiotic and in the end, he or she may get better thanks to the effects of the drug.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Just like everything else, bacteria and disease-causing organisms are also subject to the laws of evolution. They also react to environmental stressors (in this case, antibiotics) and through time, these bugs change their makeup to eventually become resistant to the antimicrobial properties of the drugs. Though those changes happen inevitably, we can all play a part in slowing down this process.
Why do we need to promote rational drug use?
To put it bluntly, there aren’t enough antibiotics out there. Given the finite set of drugs that we could use against a rapidly-evolving enemy, we are left to responsibly dispense the medicine and make sure that the low-tier drugs get used first before we go all out with the big guns. In the past decade, very few antibiotics have made it out of the labs. Making a new line of antibiotics costs a lot of money for research, development and testing. If we are not responsible with this, there will come a time when none of our antibiotics would work against the nastiest infections known to man. Considering that we are seemingly staring a pandemic in the near future, such a proposition of ineffective drugs seems very apocalyptic.
All these nasty little buggers affect us all and we all share the same weapons against them. If some of us continue to abuse drugs and irresponsibly make the most minor of infections resistant to more drugs, the future can certainly be bleak.
Bookmark at:
StumbleUpon | Digg | Del.icio.us | Dzone | Newsvine | Spurl | Simpy | Furl | Reddit | Yahoo! MyWeb
Viewed 3154 times by 1316 viewers
Browse Timeline
Comments ( 6 )
FerdzI totally agree on this one. Before I read a lot on natural and herbal medicines. Not to sound new-agey and all but “Ant-Bio” which is also is something similar to anti-life. The effects on our body isn’t really good unless i’s really needed for treatments.
added these pithy words on
Jun 27 07 at
10:40 pm
cyberpunki hope sprinkling the contents of an amoxicillin capsule over a wound counts as rational use…coz i do that sometimes…
added these pithy words on
Jun 28 07 at
2:50 am
REXReading this post is like watching Grey’s Anatomy or House. Well, Grey’s, not so much, mas maraming drama dun eh.
Hmm, I only self-medicate with anti-biotics if i have tonsillitis or laryngitis (nako, tama ba spelling?). Otherwise, I don’t take any unless I have other infections and the doctor would tell me to take some. But for fever and migraine, I simply take Biogesic and Advil. Am I misusing drugs?
added these pithy words on
Jun 28 07 at
11:54 am
JhedI usually take Biogesic when I can’t barely move from fever. But if its only a mild one, I don’t take anything at all. I just let it be, eventually it’ll pass.. right? LOL.
@Cyberpunk: I do that too sometimes. Although, I’m not really sure if its effective or not. Haha! Is it, Doctor Benj? LOL.
added these pithy words on
Jun 28 07 at
9:53 pm
SkyeBRAVO! It’s still a wonder why people tend to self-medicate… especially when antibiotics are concerned. Unknown to them, they’re actually creating new strains of drug-resistant bacteria! (Go, TB!) Talk about spreading disease..
Anyway, I read your ‘about’ page and was happy to see a fellow UP Manila blogger. I’m from College of Nursing, but don’t bother asking around for me, I use a different name online. Haha.
I just want to ask… how do you find time to update your blog while you’re studying Med at UP? That’s a major feat!
added these pithy words on
Jun 28 07 at
10:27 pm
