विश्व स्वास्थ्य दिवस पर विशेष
Author : Dr. P. D.GUPTA
Former Director Grade Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
www.daylife.page
Once again Corona spreading its legs in India Every day more and more people are falling victim of Covid -19. This time Indian Government is taking effective steps to reduce its effects, and in this endeavour we would also like to educate public for the indiscriminate use of antibiotis.
Before antibiotic era, even simple infections frequently led to more serious illness, even deaths. Penicillin was hailed as a "miracle drug" when it went into widespread use in the early 1940s. Antibiotics are powerful medications that treat only certain infections and not all. Antibiotics can save lives, but any time antibiotics are used, they can cause side effects and contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. The use of antibiotics when they're not needed makes these wonder drugs resistant to bacteria, and over time they become less useful. They can also have side effects that make patients sicker than they were in the first place
Antibiotics Can Do More Harm than Good
Antibiotics aren’t always the answer when you’re sick. It’s important to use antibiotics only when they are needed to protect yourself from harms caused by unnecessary antibiotic use and combat antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotics ONLY treat certain infections caused by bacteria, such as:
• Strep throat
• Whooping cough
• Urinary tract infection (UTI)
Antibiotics are also needed to treat life-threatening conditions caused by bacteria, such as sepsis, which is the body’s extreme response to infection.
Antibiotics DO NOT work on viruses, such as those that cause:
• Colds and runny noses, even if the mucus is thick, yellow, or green
• Most sore throats (except strep throat)
• Flu
• Most cases of chest colds (bronchitis)
Antibiotics also ARE NOT needed for some common bacterial infections, including:
• Many sinus infections
• Some ear infections
This is because these illnesses will usually get better on their own, without antibiotics.
Viruses are different from bacteria.
More serious side effects can include:
• C. diff infection, which causes diarrhea that can lead to severe colon damage and death
• Severe and life-threatening allergic reactions
• Antibiotic-resistant infections
It is important to take antibiotics only when they’re needed
Antibiotics aren’t always the answer when you’re sick. It’s important to use antibiotics only when they are needed to protect yourself from harms caused by unnecessary antibiotic use and combat antibiotic resistance.
Misuse of antibiotics happens when a person is prescribed
• the wrong antibiotic,
• the wrong dose of an antibiotic, or
• an antibiotic for the wrong length of time.
Taking antibiotics disrupts the population of bacteria that live in the gut. That’s well known, but researchers are still learning about how that disruption can affect a person’s health. The new study adds to evidence that diminishing the amount and diversity of gut bacteria impacts vaccination. In studies in mice, antibiotics hampered the immune system’s response to vaccines. And a small study in humans found that antibiotics dampened adults’ response to the flu vaccine in those whose prior immune memory for influenza had waned, Pulendran and colleagues reported in 2019. In other words vaccine also become ineffective according to this recent study.
