Why is Overuse and Misuse of antibiotics a problem?
Every time we are ill, our doctors prescribe antibiotics to stop the spread of infection in our body. Antibiotics are important discovery in the medicine but overusing and misusing them will also lead to further health risks.
An antibiotic is taken as treatment of illnesses caused by bacteria. It also kills microorganisms such as fungi and parasites. However, antibiotics could not stop viruses from spreading. This is why we need frits to consult our doctors to find out what infection we are suffering from so that he can give us the appropriate medication.
Antibiotic must be prescribed by doctors. Even some pharmacies don’t sell antibiotics without any prescription. The reason for this is that antibiotics, if overused and misused would lead to dangerous side effects in the body such as being resistant of bacteria. If this happens, the antibiotics will become less effective against that type of bacteria. The stronger antibiotics you take without any prescription will not help in treating your disease; rather the bacteria will just stay dormant and become more resistant. This would mean that you need to take the strongest antibiotics to kill that bacterium if in case you will experience that kind of bacterial infection again.
Antibiotic functions in two ways. It kills the bacteria and stops them from multiplying. If ever you took antibiotics and you are short of the number of days the doctor had prescribed, then the bacteria will not be killed. They will become more resilient to the antibiotics you had taken.
Antibiotic resistance is becoming a problem if antibiotics are misused and overused. If this happens, it would difficult to find stronger antibiotics that the infection could not resist. To avoid this, never take antibiotics prescribed to another person. Always consult your doctor if you don’t want to encounter any risk. If you value your life, then use antibiotics properly.
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