What are antibiotics?

Antibiotics is a class of drugs which is used to treat bacterial infections. They come in various forms and have variable bacterial covering spectrum e.g broad spectrum antibiotics etc.

Why do we use antibiotics?

Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. They are also used as a protective measure to stop the spread of any communicable disease e.g meningitis etc

 What are the Pros and Cons?

There are numerous pros and cons of antibiotic therapy

Pros:

• Treat otherwise fatal infections
• Prevent the spread of deadly infections
• Decreases the chance of infection in population at risk

Cons:

• Usually have a bad taste
• Can cause GI upset resulting in nausea and vomiting
• Are expensive
• Improper use can result in development of antibiotic resistance

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How excessive antibiotic use can cause infections?

Human body is home to a vast variety of bacteria and all of them aren’t harmful, some of them are beneficial and those bacteria have symbiotic relationships with the human body. These bacteria limit the growth of harmful bacteria and fungi hence prevent infection. Some of them produce important vitamins like vitamin K is produced by gut bacteria.

Excessive antibiotics can result in disruption of the balance between good and bad bacteria resulting in excessive growth of bacteria like Clostridium Difficile resulting in watery diarrhea and disease pseudomembranous colitis. Lower levels of good bacteria can also result in fungal infections e.g Candida Infection in female genital tract.

What is antibiotic resistance and how does it develop?

Antibiotic resistance is the failure of a particular antibiotic to eradicate an infection which it could eradicate previously with success. It develops through improper and excessive use of antibiotics. It results in an unnecessary load on research and developmental programs to develop new antibiotics for organisms which could have been eradicated successfully had it not developed resistance.

Excessive use of antibiotics and cost of healthcare

Unnecessary use of expensive antibiotics put a lot of strain on the economy of any country as it may prolong the time of treatment as well as hospital stay. Antibiotics produce unwanted effects which are then treated with more medications and it further elevates the healthcare cost.

 

 

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