Please explain the anti antibiotic campaign...

[gottastopeatingchocolate]

I am probably being a bit dense, but the campaign telling us not to take antibiotics without the Doctor's advice is driving me up the wall!

I understand the issue, but why are they telling us -14 times a day- when you can't get antibiotics without a doctor prescribing them?

Am I missing something?

People who don't finish the course, and end up with a few spare tablets in the cupboard "just in case"

It's quite easy to get hold of them these days without a prescriptions - international travel (lots of countries do not have the same restrictions), the internet...

People are probably harassing practice nurses and GPs for antibiotics because they think that infections need antibiotics so if more people know this then less harassing of medical staff and less unnecessary GP appointments are booked.

People who buy them on holiday. People who use their family member's tablets or cream.

Isn’t it TAKE the doctors advice?

IE, don’t demand antibiotics if they advise against it (there’s SO many things that you dont need them for but some people insist) and also you have to finish the course even if you feel better.

Antibiotic resistance is a really serious problem.

Because people share them - "hey, the Dr gave me these when I was ill and I got better. I didn't need them all so why don't you try them?" For example.

Also in Spain you can buy them in chemists, over the counter. My MIL stocks up and brings them back.

Yes, when I lived in France they were given out like sweets.

You can get antibiotics online, e.g. my mum does it for cistitis (or however it's spelled) but she's a doctor and her GP is impossible to get appointments at.

Loads of people I know just ring the surgery and ask for antibiotics and get them! Especially with their kids, they know every other kid in the school or nursery has the same symptoms but still think DS or DD needs antibiotics for a sore throat. Not my surgery though, they're very stingy with antibiotics and have been making us buy our own paracetamol for years (quite rightly)

1 Antibiotic resistance is growing
2 We're not developing enough new ones
3 Using antibiotics unnecessarily and not finishing a course increases antibiotic resistance
4 Most things don't need antibiotics
5 People are now being affected by previously manageable illnesses as no drugs to treat the resistant illness.

I think you get a lot of people refusing to leave the doctors surgery until they have a prescription, even though the doctor has said it's a virus and they can't help. Or they will still take up doctors appointments to ask for antibiotics for a cold. Or switch to another doctor for another opinion until they get the answer they want. Doctors are people too and under a lot of pressure and although I'm sure they don't want to prescribe antibiotics in every case, I can see how they give in when people kick up enough of a stink

The World Health Organisation is very concerned about anti-biotic resistance. Over-use is a huge (main?) part of the problem.

www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antibiotic-resistance

As PP, some people insist on being given antibiotics for colds and flu and other viruses. They can be very determined.

Some people do not actually understand the difference between a virus and a bacterium.

You would think the clue would be in the name, but apparently not.

We really cannot overstate how antibiotics have revolutionized medical practise and saved millions.

Pepe can be a bit dim about antibiotics.

As Beckes and others have written, the loss of effective means to treat bacterial infections is a massive concern. These medicines are precious and should be safeguarded.

Becles (sorry for misspelling)

If they'd discovered this 30 years ago and made a big promotion of it, it may well have prevented me from having such a useless immune system in adulthood.
I still have my early childhood record book from the 1980's and in it is written every antibiotic I had during my pre school/ early school years.
It totals up to over 30!!!
The worst of it is I remember when I started reception class I used to get so distressed over school that I'd often tell my mum I had "earache". Clearly I didn't! I just wanted a day off school! I was five!
I'm assuming the doctor checked my ears, but either way he flung prescription after prescription at my mother (probably just to get rid of her) and the majority of the time I didn't have an ear infection!

It's definitely taken it's toll over the years.
Even though I haven't had anywhere near as many antibiotics in adulthood, my immune system is low. I have built up a resistance to antibiotics and it takes me a lot longer to recover when I do get an infection.

This isn't new, I remember doing the graphics for a waiting room version of this about 11 years ago. I think when they were first invented they got a bit of a reputation for being a wonder drug.

OTOH though some people are unnecessarily cautious about them and are anti-antibiotic in the same way many people are anti-vaccine - I thought your post was about that :)

Thanks, all.

I completely understand the issues as @Becles has outlined them - it was the other responses I didn't get - that people can buy them abroad/online or can get them from a doctor without being seen or by coercion.

I naively thought you only got antibiotics if a doctor deemed them necessary and prescribed them.

Every day's a school day!!

Pinkkittens - I hope you don't mind me commenting on your post? You make an interesting point about over use of antibiotics in childhood, but I don't think the impact is as direct as you suggest.

I agree that over use of antibiotics can be problematic for the person taking them, but it's not possible for a human to become resistant to antibiotics. Bacteria, not humans or animals, become antibiotic-resistant. These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria.

However, antibiotics are a blunt force weapon and they don't only kill harmful bacteria. Repeated use can damage your helpful bacteria, or microbiome, and it is now know that these helpful bacteria are really crucial for loads of reasons, including preventing disease.

I think that we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of the problems caused my antibiotic misuse, and in the next few years resistant bacteria and (a lack of new drugs to combat them) are going to kill more and more people.

I don't get it either. The public wouldn't have antibiotics to take if the Dr didn't prescribe. Surely only a negligible number are buying in Spain etc.

These campaigns are obviously good at raising awareness but pedants like my mother will refuse to take their prescribed anti biotics and eat fresh vegetables instead because they read a press article about resistance.

Actually I also know people who lie to doctors to get antibiotics quickly. When I had strep the Dr said to wait two weeks (I got a swab done after one week but it took a week to come back anyway) to see if it would clear up before trying antibiotics. Some people just go in after a few days and say "I've had a terrible sore throat for three weeks".

Pinkkittens292 I agree with ToftheB. It's not you that is resistant but that bacteria have evolved to resist.

Have you taken probiotics? Have you read info of gut flora? You can get herself healthy by eating well, fermented food is fantastic for your microbiome. I amazed more Dr. don't proscribe probiotics for people who are effectively under the weather and need a bit of help to get over an infection.