Misuse of antibiotics affects their effectiveness

Did you know that taking the wrong antibiotics can have dire consequences for you and many others? If antibiotics are misused, their effectiveness will gradually diminish. This can turn diseases that are typically manageable with antibiotics into life-threatening conditions, posing a severe risk to public health.

How misuse of antibiotics changes their effectiveness

What makes antibiotics less effective is the resistance of the bacteria that survive treatment. That's why it's imperative always to take antibiotics and never spontaneously stop treatment. If you experience problems during treatment (for example, allergies), contact your doctor and only discontinue treatment on their advice. 

Antibiotics must kill all the disease-causing bacteria in your body (or at least most of them so that your immune system can handle the rest). In layman's terms, if the bacteria survive the antibiotics, they will develop resistance to them. And if they continue to spread, the new bacteria that emerge from them will no longer respond to the antibiotics. The patient is left with only their immune system to fight the disease, which is usually weakened due to the illness.

It is from complications associated with resistant bacteria that around 35,000 people die each year in Europe.

How to use antibiotics correctly

When taking antibiotics, you must follow the dosage prescribed by your doctor. Do not stop taking them even if you feel better. You may feel better, but you need to eradicate the disease. 

Do not keep antibiotics in stock and return unused medicine to the pharmacy. Also, do not treat yourself or your relatives with any leftover antibiotics. Antibiotics are not intended to and do not work to reduce fever or against the common cold or seasonal cold. 

Antibiotics are not the answer to every problem, so don't require your doctor to prescribe them for every cough and fever. Only by proper and moderate use can antibiotics maintain their effectiveness and, therefore, their therapeutic properties, which are indispensable to us.