You’re sick and want quick relief, but are antibiotics the solution? Our Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall has the answer. On The Doctors, she reveals the dos and don’ts for taking antibiotics and what you need to know for cold & flu season.
By quick show of hands how many of you have asked your doctor for an antibiotic when you felt ill so it’s very common here’s the problem if you take antibiotics when you don’t need them you may not be able to fight infections when it matters the most dr. freda lewis-hall the chief medical officer of pfizer is back we’re going to help explain what superbugs are
And why they can be so very dangerous welcome back talking about super bugs are bacteria that are resistant to many of the commonly used antibiotics they can cause untreatable infections and here’s how so antibiotics are medicines that are designed to kill off the bad bacteria that caused many illnesses that we’re familiar with bacterial pneumonia urinary tract
Infections whooping cough tuberculosis now the problem arises when we use antibiotics we either overuse them we use them improperly or we use them to treat things that are not caused by bacteria like colds and the flu and using them at this time allows the bacteria to adapt and to become resistant to the antibiotics and i want to show everyone what happens when
Antibiotics work what do they do they attack bacteria they destroy the bacteria now if you have bacteria that are resistant to that antibiotic like you’re seeing here with these orange bacteria they can quickly spread and proliferate that of course can make it harder and harder for antibiotics to treat infections each year here in the u.s. at least 23,000 people
Die from antibiotic resistant infections and nearly 2 million people get serious infections that are resistant to antibiotics designed to treat those very infections i talk about this subject all the time on the show there’s a real danger when it comes to overusing antibiotics my son carlos is a very happy healthy 12 year old he participated in all kinds of sport
He loved football but in 2007 he died of pneumonia caused by a bacterial infection called mrsa girls have a sixth-grade camp and got sick when his father picked him up from camp my son was ghost white running 104 degree fever the next day he was worse i brought him to urgent care and is diagnosed with pneumonia they prescribed them antibiotics and the next morning
He started hallucinating he was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with mercer the following day they administered the antibiotics but the merced spread to all of his major organs including his lungs two weeks later carlos died in the hospital this is obviously incredibly tragic mersa it’s a type of staph bacteria it can usually cause a skin infections but in
Unique cases you can spread to the bloodstream hard bones joints and in carlos’s case the lungs it’s tougher to treat than most strains of staff because it’s resistant to some of the commonly used antibiotics but unfortunately the case with carlos he encountered a bacterial strain that was resistant to the antibiotics carlos mom amber joins us and i just want to
Offer our condolences and thank you for being here with us today this isn’t happen to another family thank you for opening up about this because we need to talk about what everyone needs to take into consideration the next time that they feel ill so we can prevent tragedies like this from occurring it’s so absolutely true now here we come cold and flu season these
Terrible symptoms come upon us we want a quick fix so we call our doctor and we pressure them to please give us some antibiotics here’s the problem viruses are not effectively treated by antibiotics and cold bronchitis the flu and many coughs are caused by viruses so we have to let the cause determine the treatment here are some do’s and don’ts i want everyone
To pay attention to when it comes to protecting your health talk to your doc about what treatment is appropriate for your particular illness when you do need antibiotics take the appropriate dosage complete the entire course of treatment and this is important never take antibiotics that are prescribed for another person and here’s another tip talk to your doctor
About vaccines against viruses like the flu or vaccines against bacteria like whooping cough diphtheria and pneumococcal pneumonia so the point to remember here is antibiotics can save lives for people who have serious bacterial infections but remember using antibiotics when they’re not needed can cause antibiotic resistance and limit your ability to fight off
Future infections so for more information on bacterial infections and for how to use antibiotics responsibly people can visit get healthy stay healthy.com and while they’re there they can sign up for our monthly newsletter thank you so much for joining us talking about an important topic
Transcribed from video
The Dos and Don’ts for Taking Antibiotics By Pfizer
