More staph infections popping up all over the country. One kid dead in Virginia. Eight in New Jersey infected with a Methicillin-resistant strain. See what happens when antibiotics are over-prescribed?
Oh, don’t even try to push the blame on somebody else, Medicos. No, no, no. It was you who gave antibiotics for every single ailment no matter how minor. You gave them to patients that you had diagnosed as having viral infections, despite the fact that antibiotics only work on bacteria.
“But the patient expects to be given something.”
Yeah, and now we have an antibiotic resistant epidemic on our hands. I’m so excited to see the BS fly when public health officials try to explain this one.
Wait! This just in: Five more high school kids infected with Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA). Whew!–they’re spraying the showers and locker rooms. Hmmm…What took so long? Really, really frightening stuff. Just check out this Google page to have your head spin. The number of infections around the country are staggering.
Here is the take home lesson: Antibiotics should be taken only periodically–that is, only when absolutely necessary. When antibiotics are taken for every little cold or flu, bacteria respond by mutating and developing resistance. Every year, I talk to a good dozen people who say, “I wasn’t feeling well, so I just went to my doctor and got antibiotics.” WTF! You really can’t ride out that cold?
So I always respond, “Oh yeah, which bacterial infection are you treating?” Here are the two most common answers in order of frequency:
- “Uh, I don’t know.”
- “It’s a viral infection.”
“Great, feeling better?”
“Oh yeah. Definitely.”
Yeah. BS. Listen, antibiotics do nothing against viral infections (probably 90% of colds and flu) and now they don’t do nuttin’ against Staph aureus. I sure hope we learn our lesson on this one. But somehow, I doubt it.
