PRESCRIBED ANTIBIOTICS. By the right dose and frequency of antibiotics. Prescribed antibiotics are important.

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Kerry O’Neal’
5 years ago
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1 PRESCRIBED ANTIBIOTICS By What are Antibiotics? Antibiotics are a group of therapy medicines that are used to treat infections caused by germs (bacteria and parasite). It is important to know that antibiotics do not work against virus and each infection that caused by bacteria or parasite needs the right dose and frequency of antibiotics. Prescribed antibiotics are important. The type of antibiotic your doctor prescribes to treat your infection depends on the type of bacteria causing that infection. Most bacteria fall into two types: Gram-positive and Gram-negative. These classifications are based on the type of cell wall that the bacteria has. Gram-positive bacteria -- such as Streptococcus -- have thin, easily permeable, single-layered cell walls. Gram-negative bacteria -- such as E. coli -- have thicker, less penetrable, two-layer cell walls. For an antibiotic to successfully treat a bacterial infection, it needs to be able to penetrate either or both types of bacterial cell walls. How Antibiotics work? Antibiotics work in one of a few ways: by either interfering with the bacteria's ability to repair its damaged DNA, by stopping the bacteria's ability to make what it needs to grow new cells, or by weakening the bacteria's cell wall until it bursts.

2 How important are Prescribed Antibiotics? Prescribed antibiotics help you to correctly treat your infection. Just like common sickness, you need the right medicine to heal your sickness and kill the pathogen. If not, it might be more dangerous because the sickness will double up. Prescribed antibiotics are important and it is more important to finish the antibiotics course. What happen when we don t finish the course? The danger to the individual is that the infection will recur, and will be more difficult to treat when it does. The danger to the rest of us is that the general population of the infecting bacterium will become more resistant to the antibiotic concerned. If you fail to complete a course of antibiotics, some of the bacteria causing the infection may survive - and these will be the ones with the greatest resistance to the antibiotic. This is an unnatural version of natural selection, and will result in the bacterial population in the afflicted patient having a higher than normal resistance to that antibiotic. As the surviving bacteria reproduce, the resulting infection would not be treatable with the same antibiotic. If the infection is passed on to someone else, their infection will also be resistant to the antibiotic. How Antibiotics resistant happen? The misuse of antibiotics and the tendency for them seems to be overprescribed. In order to understand why, let s take a look at one way which

3 antibiotic resistance becomes prevalent. When a bacterial culture is growing in a host organism, each bacterium is slightly different from the one next to it in terms of their genetic code. Because of this, some bacteria may have alterations in their DNA that will allow them to become resistant to an antibiotic. Upon the introduction of an antibiotic, such as one prescribed by a doctor, many of the non-resistant bacteria will be eradicated, but the few resistant bacteria will remain. At this point, the bacterial population is greatly diminished allowing the immune system to overpower the infection and clear it from the host. In another case where the patient uses the antibiotics incorrectly, there is a greater risk for the generation of antibiotic resistant bacteria that has the potential to become a serious clinical issue. When prescribed an antibiotic, it is extremely important to take the full dose for as long as the doctor prescribed and not to discontinue use in the event that symptoms improve. Interrupting the antibiotic dosage prematurely can accelerate the rebound of resistant bacteria. The drug has a shorter duration to accomplish the job, leaving a larger population of unharmed and resistant bacteria that are able to multiply, causing the patient to become sick with a population of resistant bacteria. In this event, it will be much more difficult for the host s immune system to combat the infection and other drug therapies may be required What to do?

4 Sickness can be extremely dangerous if we don t treat it right. The right analysis, the right medicine, the right dose, these things are important to heal your sickness. Imagine if we don t get the right analysis for our sickness and then get the wrong medicine and dose, it will be fatal. So, going to doctor and ask for the right treatment is the best way. And having prescribed antibiotics then finish the course are the most important steps to cure your bacterial infection.

5 References American Academy of Pediatrics - Healthy Children. "How Do Antibiotics Work." July 31, (March 15, 2014) American Chemical Society (ACS). "Discovery and Development of Penicillin." (March15,2014) enicillin.html Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work - Fast Facts." Nov. 4, (March 15, 2014) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work -- What Everyone Should Know and Do - Snort. Sniffle. Sneeze. No Antibiotics Please!" Nov. 4, (March 15, 2014) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Threat Report 2013." March 10, (March 15, 2014)

6 Diffen. "Gram-negative Bacteria vs Gram-positive Bacteria." (March 15, 2014)

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