Most of the enemy is dead, and the remaining bacteria are beating a hasty retreat.

That's cute, but stupid - as if the remaining bacteria, the most resistant ones, become frightened and flee from your body.

Common antibiotic regimens are 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14 days. Some infections are treated with a single dose. Some take months. It depends on the type of infection, the severity of it, and which antibiotic is being used. It's based on decades of experience in treating billions of infections, and a lot of learning things the hard way.

Some antibiotics are taken twice a day, some three times and some four. The doses are spaced evenly apart. The idea is to keep the bacteria continuously exposed to a high enough level of the antibiotic over a long enough period of time to completely eradicate them. Some infections take longer to kill than others.

In an infection being treated with antibiotics the least resistant bacteria will die first; the more resistant the bacteria are the longer it will take for the antibiotic to kill them. When most of the bacteria are killed, perhaps in the first two days, the signs and symptoms may resolve and the person will feel all better. The bacteria that are still alive by then are the most resistant. If you stop taking the antibiotic because the signs and symptoms are gone, maybe your immune system will finish off the few remaining bacteria. If not then those most resistant bacteria will reproduce, and the next infection will be harder to treat.

It's very common for people to stop taking an antibiotic as soon as they feel better, instead of finishing the full course and completely eradicating the most resistant bacteria. This is how antibiotic-resistant infections develop. It's not because of taking too much antibiotic.

This is the first Asian doctor I don't trust, like, at all.

If you only need AB for two days, it's either because you're on nucular-option Vancomycin, or you can afford a trip to the doctor anytime you feel that your face is a little warm.

I grew up with more than enough trips to the doctor and/or the hospital to know better than to stop taking antibiotics just because the fever and the swelling are gone.

I thought the idea was you had to kill every last bacteria, because the ones that "beat a hasty retreat" have now learned about the antibiotic and will come back stronger. So you have to take no prisoners.

"Is there any harm? No. What's the worst that will happen? If the bacteria start to mount a comeback, then you can take more antibiotics."

This person is an idiot.

The harm is that if the bacteria start to mount a comeback the bacteria that survived were the ones that were most resistant to the original antibiotic treatment.

Even a limited understanding of how evolution works would indicate that the new population of bacteria will now be harder to treat... and if you infect someone else with this new population of bacteria that person will be infected with more resilient germs.

I cannot take anyone seriously who talks about the "unscientific" basis of medicine when they clearly do not understand one of the key pillars of our modern understanding of biology.

These articles are nothing new. Warnings about anitibiotic overuse and misuse have been coming out at least since the early seventies, and maybe before.

Anecdotally, i have a cousin who was born in 1951. He had rhematic fever as a small child and was put on one penicillin tab a day ostensibly for the rest of his life to try and prevent a reoccurrence. Crazy town.

Anitibiotics have been prescribed for years for things they wont make a dent in, such as viral infections.

Two reasons for that, maybe more. The first is doctors don't get paid for doing nothing. Second, legal liability.

So I think arguing about the length of treatment is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Anitibioitics don't selectively kill *bad* bacteria. Broad spectrum ones are generally designed to kill *all*bacteria, even the stuff that is beneficial. Thus it has always been a crap shoot as to whether you were potentially hurting or helping the patient, in all but the most severe cases of infection.

There is another "cause" for Antibiotics overuse that I didn't see mentioned in the article - the stupid patients!

Too many patients seem to expect something - anything - for their every little sniffle. And, many doctors will prescribe them something for fear of losing patients.

How many people are happy when they take off from work to go to the doctor only to have him/her tell them to go home, stay in bed, and drink OJ and chicken soup? and no meds given! Yea, doctors that prescribe that will lose quite a few of their patients to the doctor down the street who will give out pills like candy!

So, it isn't just "current medical teaching" that is the problem - it is often just people who are the problem.

Oh, and what I said above fits in well with your post title, Amy, witch doctor's "magic" works because patients expect it too.

So, doctors prescribing "anything" works too for the same reason - people expect them too.

In both cases, the patients might have very well gotten better with/without any "doctor."

I question this author's grasp of basic medicine. Antibiotic treatment lengths vary widely, as was pointed out already. Drs used to hand antibiotics out like candy, yes, but that practice has been stopped for decades. It's very difficult to get antibiotics even for things like ear infections, sinus infections, even pneumonia nowadays.

If you are going to stop taking antibiotics before the course is finished, dont bother starting them.

I DO keep up with the research, which is why my hospital is on the forefront of adopting practices like eliminating flagyl as a C dif treatment, and using droplet ISO for C dif instead of contact. Fecal clouds, theyre a thing, people!!

“I question this author's grasp of basic medicine. Antibiotic treatment lengths vary widely, as was pointed out already. Drs used to hand antibiotics out like candy, yes, but that practice has been stopped for decades”

In some places in the US, yes, but in Great Britain, and other countries, world wide, it is still a huge problem. Dentists are some of the biggest offenders, here and overseas.

The explosion in C diff infections was caused by routine anitibiotic use, in hospitals and nursing homes.

"Antibiotic-resistant" does not mean "antibiotic-immune."

It's possible that taking the full 14 day course could be enough to overwhelm the resistant bacteria and kill them.

--------------------

Karen: "I thought were were gonna use the surplus to buy bullet-proof vests."
Davis: "I saved a little money and bought bullet-resistant vests."
Karen: "Ever slept in a water-resistant tent? You get pretty wet."

--------------------

Ken Richards is right. This writer is scientifically illiterate. It's too bad he can't be sued for malpractice because his writing is sure to cause harm.

Ken Richards is right. This writer is scientifically illiterate. It's too bad he can't be sued for malpractice because his writing is sure to cause harm.

jdgalt at April 7, 2018 9:04 AM

Since journalists in general have such poor analytical skills, getting sued regularly for misstatements of logic and fact, would pretty much doom the profession.

Doctors treating you make their best guess on what would be helpful and what would be harmful. Generally if they are right sixty percent of the time, I would call them a good doctor.

There is no certainty in medicine, and there are loads of side effects, and unintended consequences.

Charles Says:

"There is another "cause" for Antibiotics overuse that I didn't see mentioned in the article - the stupid patients!"

The problem of patient compliance with medical directives goes well beyond antibiotic use.

This has been a serious ongoing problem in the medical field.

If patients followed the advice and treatment directives provided by medical professionals then overall health outcomes would be much improved.

If you happen to be in doubt regarding the advice you have been given by a medical professional the best course of action is to get a second opinion immediately from a qualified expert before deciding on your own that you know how to increase or reduce doses of medication.

Often times medications will come with direct advice to discontinue use if certain adverse side effects are noted... but one should still communicate with a physician to determine the best path forward.

Another issue I don't see mentioned is antibiotics in animal feed. Long term antibiotic use causes weight gain. A good outcome when raising food animals. Also the close conditions in factory farms leads to a lot of illness. So animal feed has antibiotics mixed in. This is a major source of resistant diseases.

Oh, okay. So the next time the kid has strep, don't let the doctor give him amoxicillin. I'll see you in court when you're charged with the child's death because the untreated strep caused toxic shock syndrome.