Quick: you're sick with a bad cold. Your mom and dad want you to feel better as soon as possible. Should they take you to a doctor and demand an antibiotic for you?
No! Absolutely not! As you may have already read elsewhere on this web site, antibiotics do not treat colds or flu because these illnesses are caused by viruses and antibiotics work only against bacteria.
If you knew that already, give yourself a gold star. But more than 40% of adults didn't know that when they answered a recent survey. In fact, this survey found that almost half of adults would want an antibiotic prescription to make them feel better if they had a cold. About a third of parents would want a prescription for their sick kids. Read the details here:
This article explains why demanding an antibiotic to treat a cold is not just useless, but also could be dangerous. No, the drugs won't hurt the cold patients, which is why doctors used to be willing to give them out to patients even when the docs knew the drugs wouldn't make the illness go away any faster. Taking the drugs just made patients THINK they were getting better faster. However, we're now seeing the rise of supergerms, bacteria that have met enough antibiotics to have figured out defenses against them. How does that happen? Visit the page on Microbial Mutations.
If disease-causing bacteria all get to the point that they can laugh off all of our drugs, we're going to be in BIG trouble. That's why it's important ALL of us know about right and wrong antibiotic use.
Now, aren't you glad you're in that 50% of people who know the facts about antibiotics and colds? Don't you wish everyone did? You can get more facts about proper antibiotic use at the CDC web site.
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