In many people's concept, taking antibiotics for fever is an irrefutable truth. Once upon a time, antibiotics called "anti-inflammatory drugs" by the people were almost essential products in every household's medicine storage box. Until now, I often hear many parents of children say, "The child has a fever again, hurry up and take some anti-inflammatory drugs, and the fever will fade faster."
Is "anti-inflammatory drugs" really a omnipotent?
Scientifically speaking, "anti-inflammatory drugs" cannot be omnipotent. In fact, antibiotics are not only not "universal" but also abuse can even be very risky.
What is inflammation?
Inflammation is a body's defensive response to stimulation, which manifests as redness, swelling, heat, pain and dysfunction. Inflammation can be infectious inflammation caused by pathogens or non-infectious inflammation caused by pathogens. Generally speaking, inflammation is beneficial and is the body's automatic defense response; but sometimes, inflammation is also harmful, such as systemic lupus erythematosus , which is an inflammation caused by attacks on the body's own tissues, etc. In daily life, many people think that if there is inflammation, they should use antibiotics to prevent inflammation. This idea is definitely wrong.
anti-inflammatory drugs≠antibiotics
anti-inflammatory drugs are used to fight inflammation. They are both medical antipyretic and analgesic anti-inflammatory drugs. They cannot eradicate inflammatory factors, but can relieve inflammatory symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat, and pain, such as aspirin and some Chinese patent medicines. The function of antibiotics is to kill bacteria and other pathogenic microorganisms ; all antibiotics are prescription drugs. If the cause cannot be determined, antibiotics cannot be selected as regular medicines.
Common misunderstandings in the use of antibiotics
Misunderstandings One If you have a cold or fever, you must use antibiotics
Antibiotics are only effective for bacterial infections. However, most colds are viral infections in the early stages, and less than 10% are caused by bacteria. However, as the disease develops, patients are just a simple viral cold . After catching a cold, symptoms of snot, high fever, and thick sputum after catching a cold, which indicates that mixed bacteria are infected. At this time, you should go to the hospital to see a doctor and use antibiotics reasonably as prescribed by the doctor.
Misunderstanding 2 Antibiotics can prevent infection
Antibiotics are only suitable for inflammatory reactions caused by bacteria and some other microorganisms. It is not only useless to treat antibiotics to patients with viral colds, measles , mumps , influenza , and flu . Antibiotics have no effect in preventing infection, and long-term use of antibiotics will cause an increase in bacterial resistance.
Misconceptions 3 broad-spectrum antibiotics are better than narrow-spectrum antibiotics
There are clear principles for the use of antibiotics: those who can use narrow-spectrum do not use broad-spectrum; those who can use low-level do not use advanced; those who can use one to solve the problem will never use two; those who can use mild or moderate infections generally do not use antibiotics in combination. It is best to use narrow spectrum, single antibiotics empirically without specifying the specific type of pathogenic microorganisms; otherwise, the bacteria's resistance to antibiotics will be easily increased.
Misconceptions 4 The more expensive the antibiotic, the better. The newly developed ones are better than the old ones
In fact, each antibiotic has its own characteristics, and its advantages and disadvantages are different. Generally, appropriate antibiotics should be selected according to the cause and individual patient, and individual administration should be adhered to.From the perspective of antibiotic prices alone, expensive antibiotics are not necessarily better than cheap antibiotics for treatment. For example, erythromycin is an old antibiotic and is very cheap. It has a very good therapeutic effect on pneumonia infected by Legionella and Mycoplasma. Carbonpenem antibiotics (such as imipenem ) are highly stable and have a wider antibacterial spectrum than third-generation cephalosporin, but they are expensive and have more adverse reactions. The newly developed antibiotics are advanced in production, with less impurities, and have relatively small side effects, but the adverse reactions need to be further observed and understood.
Misconceptions 5 Frequently replace antibiotics
Antibiotic treatment has a certain cycle. If the efficacy of using a certain antibiotic does not achieve the expected effect for the time being, first of all, the medication time should be considered. Secondly, factors such as the route of administration and the patient's own immune function status can also affect the efficacy of the antibiotic. Frequent replacement of antibiotics will cause confusion in medication use, which can easily cause bacteria to become resistant to various drugs and will also cause certain harm to the patient's body.
misunderstandings 6 Once effective, stop the medication
WHOWorld Health Organization (WHO) lists three principles of medication: only when the doctor prescribes you, take antibiotics; even if the condition improves, you must take the entire course of treatment, do not use the remaining antibiotics or give it to others.
misunderstandings7 antibiotic side effects strong
Many patients often reduce the dosage themselves or stop the medication early in order to reduce side effects. The best way to treat bacterial infection with antibiotics is to "kill with one blow", because only when the antibiotic reaches the corresponding concentration in the body can it kill bacteria. A "gentle knife" will give the bacteria a chance to regenerate and divide, which not only causes the patient to repeatedly need to take medicine again, but may even need to take stronger medicines. Abuse of antibiotics may artificially create the " super bacteria " with super drug resistance.
solemnly reminds
The use of antibiotics must follow the doctor's advice and the time and dosage of medication shall not be changed without authorization.
Please consult first, and then use
Antibiotics are not panacea, please be sure to use them according to the advice of medical staff.
The epidemic has not ended yet, and epidemic prevention cannot be relaxed
Source: Wuhan Third Hospital
