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Serious Infectious Diseases Resistant to Antibiotics : A very frightening consequence of indiscriminate use of antibiotics is the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These bacteria have “learned” to outsmart the drugs and have reproduced a generation of stronger, more resistant bugs. Consequently, there are some serious infectious diseases that are no longer responding to antibiotics. If an infection does respond, it often requires five to ten times the amount of the drug that used to be effective.
br> When your child is continually treated with antibiotics, the bacteria in his or her body may eventually be able to survive the drugs, making it much harder to cure an infection. In the event of a serious bacterial infection, such as meningitis, a much higher dosage of antibiotic may be required or a doctor may have to try different drugs before finding one that will work. The time this takes can potentially be a matter of life or death, since meningitis can be fatal and needs to be treated immediately. Unfortunately, with each try at a different treatment, the bacteria are given another chance to build up their resistance against even more powerful drugs.
br> Antibiotic resistance can affect the whole family and everyone around the child with a history of frequent antibiotic use.
Treatment of Sinusitis : For sinusitis caused by virus infection, no antibiotic treatment is required. Frequently recommended treatments include pain and fever medications (such as acetaminophen/Tylenol) and decongestants. Bacterial infection of the sinuses is suspected when facial pain, pus nasal discharge and symptoms persist for longer than a week and are not responding to over-the-counter nasal medications.
br> Acute sinusitis from bacteria is usually treated with antibiotic therapy aimed at treating the most common bacteria known to cause sinusitis, since it is unusual to be able to get a reliable culture without aspirating the sinuses. The five most common bacteria causing sinusitis are Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus pyogenes.
br> The antibiotics that are effective treatment for sinusitis must be able to kill these bacterial types. Amoxicillin (Amoxil) is an acceptable first antibiotic for an uncomplicated acute sinusitis. In the penicillin allergic patient, cefaclor (Ceclor), loracarbef (Lorabid), clarithromycin (Biaxin), azithromycin (Zithromax), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim, Septra) may be used.
If you take Antibiotics, do so wisely : If your doctor prescribes antibiotics, take them carefully. Follow the directions on the prescription and finish taking all the pills, even if you are feeling better before they're gone. Prescriptions are written to cover the time your body needs to fight off harmful bacteria. If you stop taking an antibiotic early, any bacteria that are still alive can renew an infection and potentially develop resistance.
br> Only use antibiotics from a new prescription. Don't take leftover medications or those prescribed for someone else. Leftover antibiotics won't make up a complete dose and if you do have a bacterial infection, a complete course of treatment will be necessary to kill all the disease-causing bacteria in your body. Any surviving organisms will be stronger and more likely to be resistant. Also remember that while antibiotics are generally safe, they kill most of the bacteria in your body that are sensitive to them, including helpful bacteria. This may result in side effects such as stomach upset, diarrhea, and vaginal infections.
Antibiotics Cycling Won't Stop Resistance : Alternating the most commonly used antibiotics -- a method called cycling -- to stop the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria won't work. Instead of cycling -- alternating between two or more classes of antibiotics as often as every few months -- an approach called mixing is suggested, where a patient is randomly administered two or more antibiotics.
br> Cycling is a new approach that's currently undergoing clinical trials in patients. The theory behind cycling is that, just as a pathogen begins to develop resistance to a particular antibiotic, a new antibiotic is introduced and the pathogen has to start all over again in building resistance to the new antibiotic. But pathogens actually encounter new antibiotics more frequently with mixing than with cycling, according to this study, based on numerical models that examined how microbial infections spread in hospitals and how microbes develop antibiotic resistance.
br> Mixing is already relatively common in hospitals, even though it's not planned, the study authors noted. That's because individual doctors develop preferences for the kinds of antibiotics they prescribe, meaning that patients receive a variety of antibiotics at random.
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