***This post was written in partnership with Baptist Health South Florida. Any advice has been linked directly to the original blog.
Amidst a Global Pandemic, other winter-related sicknesses have graced us with their presence. I know these are hard subjects to navigate, but I wanted to share an article that was brought to my attention by the experts at Baptist Health South Florida! Antibiotics. We have all probably taken them in our lifetime. We have relied on them for decades and because of this, new strains of bacteria have adapted to resist them.
The U.S. alone sees nearly 3 million, antibiotic resistant infections every year which results in about 35,000 deaths. Unfortunately, the common and sometimes unnecessary use of antibiotics over the years is wide spread.
According to this article, “One of the things that we say is that the more you use antibiotics, the more you lose antibiotics because we pressure the organisms to become resistant the more we use them,” said Timothy Gauthier, Pharm. D., manger of the antimicrobial stewardship clinical program at Baptist Health South Florida.
Gauthier and fellow Baptist Health clinical pharmacist Jefferson Cua, Pharm. D., discussed this topic in a recent podcast.
Key Takeaways and Things I wanted share are:
What do antibiotics actually do?
Unlike most medicines, antibiotics do not attack cells. They target and attack the bacteria themselves. This is good and bad because they may also target beneficial gut bacteria in our microbiome.
Why can’t we use antibiotics for viruses?
Most of the time, there aren’t proper bacteria on the virus. So an antibiotic would not be an effective treatment. That is why antibiotics cannot be used for things like the common cold.
Is there an Antibiotics Awareness Week?
I had to quote Timothy Gauthier on this one: “U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week is an annual observance that always happens November 18th through 24th and it highlights the steps that everyone can take to provide antibiotic prescribing and use that is rational. Antibiotics can save lives and are critical tools for treating a number of common, of more serious infections that can lead to very serious infections like sepsis. It’s okay to use antibiotics when you need to, but when you don’t need antibiotics, we do not want to give them because there can be consequences.”
Why can’t we develop new antibiotics?
The short answer is: MONEY. Isn’t it always? Big pharma does not see the returns on drugs like antibiotics because it actually kills the infection vs. treating long term symptoms or side effects. This means, there has not been funds made available for research and development of new antibiotics in years.
The biggest takeaway and one piece of advice that I have lived by when it comes to antibiotic use is this: “You don’t want to take antibiotics if you don’t need to, because they can be harmful.”
To read more on this topic or listen to the Baptist Health South Florida Podcast, click here.