Antibiotics can only show their effect at the critical moment when the body fights with the virus, if abused, it will reduce the human immunity, enhance the virus resistance, and finally there is a possibility that the virus will abuse you enough.

The "bad side" here is actually the adverse effects of antimicrobials.

Antibacterial drugs have been used in clinical practice for decades, and have cured many infectious diseases and saved the lives of many patients by exerting their unique antibacterial effects. However, many drug-induced adverse reactions and consequences have also been found in the process of drug use, which can cause disability or death in serious cases.

Adverse drug reactions refer to the occurrence of harmful reactions unrelated to the purpose of prevention and treatment due to drug or drug interactions at commonly used doses. There are three main categories of adverse reactions to antimicrobial drugs:

I. Toxic reaction, is the most common one among various adverse reactions caused by antimicrobial drugs, mainly in the kidneys, nervous system, liver, blood, gastrointestinal tract, and localization of drug administration.

Second, allergic reactions, almost every antibacterial drugs can cause mild or severe allergic reactions, the most common is the rash, other anaphylactic shock, serum sickness type reaction, drug fever, angioneurotic edema, eosinophilia, hemolytic anemia, aplastic anemia, contact dermatitis and so on.

Third, secondary infections, also known as alternating flora, are new infections that appear during the application of antimicrobial drugs. Under normal circumstances, the human body's oral cavity, respiratory tract, intestinal tract, reproductive system and other places have bacterial parasites reproduction. Most of these bacteria are conditionally pathogenic, and a few are pathogenic or purely parasitic. Parasitic flora in mutual antagonism constraints to maintain balance. When long-term application of broad-spectrum antibacterial drugs, the sensitive flora is inhibited, while the uninhibited ones take advantage of the opportunity to proliferate, leading to secondary infections.

bibliography

Wang F, Zhang Yingyuan, eds. New edited pharmacology [M]. 2nd edition. Beijing: people's health press, 2015:111-122.

The authoritative interpretation of Pharmaceutical Affairs, unauthorized reproduction, plagiarism will be punished.

How harmful are antibiotics?

The use of antibiotics may have some harm (adverse reactions), as long as the doctor's advice and rational use can try to avoid the adverse reactions of this class of drugs, the abuse of antibiotics can lead to the following harm:

(1) Metamorphic reactions: e.g. penicillin can cause anaphylaxis, hemolytic anemia, rash, etc.; tetracycline can cause photosensitivity reactions, etc.

(2) Making bacteria resistant: bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics after repeated contact with them, causing them to lose their ability to inhibit or kill bacteria.

(3) Damage to human organs: the kidneys are the main excretory pathway for most antibiotics, and the antibiotics that are nephrotoxic mainly include aminoglycosides, polymyxins, peptide antibiotics (vancomycin), cephalosporins, tetracyclines and penicillins. In addition, antibiotics may also cause liver injury, vestibular function injury, nerve injury, etc.

(4) secondary infection: refers to the new infection that occurs during the application of antibacterial drugs, under normal circumstances, the human body's oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract and other places there is a bacterial flora, the bacterial flora of each other to constrain, to maintain a state of equilibrium, long-term application of broad-spectrum antibiotics, the body's sensitive bacterial flora is inhibited, the uninhibited bacterial flora is to take advantage of the opportunity for large-scale reproduction, which can once again result in infections.

Reviewed by Shen Juan, Deputy Chief Pharmacist, Department of Pharmacy, The First People's Hospital of Hefei, China

Click here for details of the doctor's answer

Hello, I'm happy to answer your question.

First of all, there is no such thing as a good or bad antibiotic, what is important is that we learn how to use antibiotics and not abuse and misuse them.

Today, we're going to introduce you to some of the most common myths about antibiotics, so let's see how many of them you've fallen for!

Myth 1: Antibiotics = anti-inflammatory drugs

Antibiotics do not work directly against inflammation, but rather against the microorganisms that cause it. Anti-inflammatory drugs target inflammation, such as the commonly used anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs such as aspirin.

Most people mistakenly believe that antibiotics can treat all inflammation. In fact, antibiotics are ineffective in treating inflammation caused by viruses. There is a large number of normal beneficial flora in the human body, if antibiotics are used to treat sterile inflammation, these drugs will enter the body to suppress and kill the beneficial flora, causing dysbiosis, resulting in decreased resistance. Bruising, redness, swelling, pain, contact dermatitis caused by allergic reaction, drug dermatitis, and virus-induced inflammation that often occurs in daily life should not be treated with antibiotics.

Myth #2: The more types of antibiotics you use, the more effectively you can control the infection

Generally speaking, the combined use of antibiotics is not advocated, because the combined use of antibiotics can increase some irrational use of medication factors, which not only can not increase the efficacy, but also reduce the efficacy of the drug, and is prone to produce some toxic side effects or bacterial resistance to the drug. Therefore, the more types of drugs used in combination, the higher the incidence of toxic side effects and adverse reactions caused by them. Generally speaking, in order to avoid the emergence of drug resistance and toxic side effects, the problem that can be solved by one antibiotic should never use two.

Myth 3: Antibiotics for colds

Viruses or bacteria can cause colds. Colds caused by viruses are viral and those caused by bacteria are bacterial. Antibiotics are only useful for bacterial colds.

In fact, many of the just-exams fall into the category of viral colds. Strictly speaking, there is no effective medicine for viral colds, just symptomatic treatment without the use of antibiotics. We may have had this experience, after the cold habitually buy some cold medicine in the drugstore, at the same time add a little antibiotic to use. In fact, antibiotics are useless at this time, it is a waste and abuse.

Myth #4: Stopping your medication once it works

There is a cycle of antibiotic use. If you don't take antibiotics long enough, you may not see any effect at all; even if you do see an effect, you should take them for as long as necessary under your doctor's supervision. If you stop taking antibiotics after a little effect, not only will you not be cured, but even if your condition improves, it may rebound due to residual bacteria.

Similarly, stopping the drug once it works and using it again when the symptoms recur, and so on and so forth, amounts to an increase in the natural selection time of the drug on the bacteria, and also makes the bacteria resistant to this drug.

When choosing antimicrobial drugs, it is important to do so under the guidance of professionals, rather than "diagnosing" and "prescribing" the drugs yourself. In the process of medication, do not casually stop or interrupt the use of drugs, should follow the doctor's instructions to take on time and in accordance with the dosage, not abuse, misuse of antibacterial drugs, so as not to aggravate the condition or even life-threatening.