Antiobiotic Apocalypse

It’s sad that I’ve been writing too less compared to before. I have many ideas for posts scribbled in my notes but I’m not getting the time or motivation to write them out here properly. ( MENTAL NOTE: Enough of feeling bad for not writing, keep writing what you were about to!).

So I’m having a bit of cough since a few days (It’s not corona, I checked). But yeah, everyone in my family (especially my mom) worries that people will complaint and maybe put me up for quarantine as I’m coughing “too loudly” at times. That isn’t the problem guys. The problem is this - She was pestering me to take antibiotics without even testing what I had (I got checked and the doc gave me just a cough syrup and said it will be okay). The thing that bothers me a lot is the casual attitude people have towards antibiotics.

Everyone needs to understand that antibiotics are a last resort drug for almost all cases. Your own immune system is capable of handling most of the issues that you have (unless you have any complicated immune conditions). It just needs some time to work it out! Please give it some time. The problem with taking antibiotics always is that the bacteria inside you slowly start developing a resistance to the drug. It happens gradually, but shows up suddenly. Thus, it’s not really noticeable until one day you keep on taking the same antibiotics but can’t get rid of the disease. Here is a lovely video by Kurzgesagt explaining the phenomenon.

Most pharmacists also don’t even ask for a prescription before giving out the common antibiotics like azithromycin and all. Even when they are schedule H drugs. Drugs that need a valid prescription to be purchased!

As mentioned in the Kurzgesagt video above, antibiotics also enter the food chain when they are used to treat poultry and other livestock animals (pigs, cows, etc) processed for food. Although, we alone can’t do much about that except for raising our voice for change, we can take care of how much antibiotics we take and when we take it. Here is a talk by Padma Shri Awardee Dr. K K Aggarwal explaining when one should not take any antibiotics.
P.S. For those who didn’t watch the last video (or plan not to), antibiotics don’t kill/eradicate viruses. Please don’t take any antibiotics (unless prescribed by the doctor) as a preventive measure for coronavirus.