Antibiotics Guideline - When To Take, Resistance, How to Apply Correctly?

Posted by Amina Lower on November 30th, 2020

The creation of antibiotics, substances that inhibit the growth of bacteria and thereby stop the inflammatory process in the body caused by these bacteria, contributed to the fact that people stopped dying from numerous infectious diseases. Uncontrolled intake leads to the fact that the bacteria change greatly (resistant forms appear) and the drugs no longer work against them. In addition, the risk of an adverse reaction, which may be more severe than the disease itself, increases. The staff from uppmd.org where you may buy antibiotics online answered on how to take antibiotics correctly, when it is useless to apply them, and in what cases it is dangerous.

How antibiotics work?

An antibiotic is a complex chemical compound. It attacks the bacterial cell by destroying the cell wall, nucleus, or other components. A virus, unlike a bacterium, does not have a cell - only a chain of DNA or RNA and a protein film around it, which means that an antibiotic cannot affect it. An antibacterial agent is useless in treating viral diseases such as the flu. According to edical specialists, antibiotics may be prescribed only if a bacterial infection has joined the flu - otitis media or sinusitis. Acute pharyngitis (inflammation in the throat) is most often caused by viruses, and antibiotics are ineffective. An exception is streptococcal pharyngitis (streptococcal sore throat), which cannot be cured without an antibacterial agent.

When antibiotic prophylaxis is prescribed?

Taking an antibiotic, for example, with ARVI in the hope of preventing bacterial complications (sinusitis, otitis media, pneumonia) is fundamentally wrong. An antibacterial drug is prescribed only in case of a confirmed bacterial complication, while early antibiotic therapy for colds only increases the likelihood of bacterial complications. The fact is that if an antibiotic was prescribed for prophylaxis too early, and a bacterial infection nevertheless joined, then these will be other microorganisms - and the doctor will have to prescribe a second remedy with an antibiotic substance.

However, the concept of "antibiotic prophylaxis" exists in medicine. It is relevant, for example, during elective surgical operations, when a short course of an antibiotic can protect against the development of infectious complications. For prophylaxis, antibiotics are also prescribed for people with prosthetic heart valves before starting dental treatment, or to patients with certain infections when there is still no definitive infection confirmation. So, with a mite bite, an antibiotic is prescribed to prevent borreliosis (Lyme disease).

Another example of the so-called post-exposure prophylaxis is the prescription of an antibiotic to a kid who has been in contact with a patient with whooping cough or meningococcal infection. Such prevention interrupts the spread of the pathogen and reduces the risk of disease developing.

Why antibiotics are prohibited?

Antibacterial drugs are divided into groups, differ in their effects and side reactions. The severity of side effects and the likelihood of an antibiotic allergy is what influences the choice of antibacterial drug in each case. The drug reaction depends not only on the drug itself, but also on the patient's body. If a person has a chronic disease, their course may worsen while taking the prescribed antibiotic. Therefore, it is so important to tell the doctor about concomitant diseases and the presence of allergies, even if it was a very long time ago. Symptoms of the latter are itching, swelling of the respiratory tract, or even anaphylactic shock (usually after an antibiotic injection), when the pressure drops sharply, a semi-fainting state occurs and the person needs urgent resuscitation.

Dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, bloating, loose stools are common manifestations in response to antibiotic therapy. But this is not the whole list of toxic reactions. Some antibiotics are hepatotoxic (amphotericin, erythromycin) - they worsen liver function and increase the risk of jaundice. In the 60s, taking antibiotics could completely result in hearing loss. This is caused by the substances of the aminoglycoside group: neomycin, streptomycin, kanamycin, gentamicin, amikacin. Previously, they treated intestinal infections (today they have learned to solve this problem in a different way - as a rule, without antibiotics). Currently, old aminoglycosides are used extremely rarely and only for strict indications (for example, for purulent infections of the abdominal cavity and small pelvis in combination with other drugs) - they have been changed by more modern and safe drugs.

A common complication of antibiotic therapy is the development of the so-called antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Usually, it does not need to be treated additionally, but if the ailments persist two to three days after the antibiotics' course, you should visit a doctor. The reason for such diarrhea may be the activated Clostridium difficile, a bacterium of the large intestine, which under certain conditions (under the influence of an antibiotic) can actively multiply and become pathogenic microbes. To solve the problem, you need to take other antimicrobial drugs (metronidazole, vancomycin) that inhibit the bacteria growth.

A rare but very severe complication of antibiotic therapy is hematopoiesis disorder. It is caused by the antibiotic "Levomycetin", which, due to its high toxicity, is not produced in tablets and capsules in a number of countries. Previously, Levomycetin was very effective in the fight against meningococcal infection, but now it has given way to more modern and less toxic antibiotics. Sometimes, in the old fashioned way, people take Levomycetin in the treatment of diarrhea, but this is not justified. There are also eye drops with this antibiotic, the effectiveness of which is also low.

A fairly large group of antibacterial drugs is used in pediatrics. But there are antibiotics that are contraindicated in childhood due to their ability to affect growth and the lack of data on their safety. For example, tetracycline antibiotics should not be taken until the age of 9, fluoroquinolones - until the age of 15. When prescribing an antibiotic, the drug dose should be calculated taking into account the age and weight of the kid.

Pregnant women should take antibiotics with great caution, unless such treatment is really necessary (for example, in the case of pneumonia, pyelonephritis, cholecystitis). They are especially dangerous in the first trimester of pregnancy, when the main organs and systems of the future organism are being laid. During pregnancy, tetracyclines are absolutely contraindicated (can lead to a violation of the formation of bones, teeth in the fetus), aminoglycosides (can cause oto- and nephrotoxicity), as well as chloramphenicol, sulfonamides and nitrofurans. Pregnant women are prescribed only relatively safe antibiotics that are officially approved during pregnancy: penicillins, cephalosporins, macrolides.

The bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics

On the one hand, the creation of antibiotics has revolutionized the ability to cope with diseases that were previously considered incurable. So, since 1943, they learned how to effectively treat syphilis (its causative agent - treponema pale - is sensitive to penicillin). Although at the present time, difficulties may arise. In recent years, the number of patients with syphilis has been increasing, because people often do not use condoms during intercourse. In addition, many do not know that syphilis is transmitted through oral sex and deep kissing, if there are ulcers on the oral mucosa. Of course, today syphilis is treated with antibiotics, but it is very important to learn about it as early as possible (for this you need to regularly take tests if there are risks), because advanced cases when the pathogen affects the nervous system are still difficult both in diagnosis and treatment.

On the other hand, bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a great problem in medicine. Microbes mutate and forms of bacteria appear that are no longer affected by existing antibiotics. As a result, the effectiveness of the usual drugs is noticeably reduced, and new drugs appear extremely rarely.

How to apply antibiotics correctly?

So, below there are the basic rules that you need to get acquainted yourself with before starting antibiotic therapy.

Be sure to tell your doctor prescribing the antibiotic the following: have you ever had an allergy to antibiotics, and which ones? Whether you have liver and / or kidney disease. The fact is that all antibiotics are excreted from the body by the liver or kidneys. In case of malfunction of these organs, a dangerous overdose of the drug may occur. What medications did you take before visiting your doctor? When prescribing an antibiotic, these questions need to be known, since many drugs cannot be ombined.

To prevent many of the unwanted effects of self-medication, you should know the following rules:

• antibiotics are effective only against bacteria, so it makes no sense to treat viral and fungal diseases such as influenza, hepatitis, thrush.
• the therapeutic effect of the antibiotic manifests itself within three days - if after this period there is no relief, the doctor must replace this antibiotic with another drug.
• antibiotics should be taken in a course of 5 days or more. Keep in mind that even if the painful symptoms completely disappear, in no case should you stop taking the drug. This is due to the fact that a complete disruption of the bacterial life cycle takes just such a time.
• with incomplete treatment, resistance often develops, i.e. the resistance of the pathogen to the drug, and in the future this antibiotic will already be ineffective.
• it is extremely dangerous and undesirable to take several antibiotics at the same time.
• you need to take the drug at a strictly defined time, since each antibiotic has its own life time in the body, and as a result of irregular intake, so-called "windows" are formed, when a fresh dose of an antibiotic does not enter the bloodstream and bacteria have time to adapt to this drug.

When self-medication with antibiotics, the following complications are most common:

• violation of the heart, manifested in the development of arrhythmias, which significantly increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
• providing a damaging effect on liver and kidney cells, which can cause hepatic or renal coma.
• hearing impairment, up to complete deafness. Today, this problem is common in pediatrics, when children are given "non-child" doses of antibiotics.
• visual impairment.
• Violations of intrauterine development of the child when taking antibiotics during pregnancy.

The development of hallucinations, psychosis, conditions similar to epileptic seizures.