Many patients press their doctor for a prescription because they believe that antibiotics are a cure-all, because a previous generation swore by the results, even when the results in some cases were purely psychological. Some doctors, to keep patients happy, will write the prescription for the latest version, instead of taking the time to make a proper examination and diagnosis, and offering a more simple antibiotic if required. Eighty per cent of all colds, bronchitis, coughs and the flu are caused not by bacteria but by viruses which antibiotics do not kill. Most of these ailments will clear up with other medicines or rest and drinking plenty of fluids. Where antibiotics do make a difference is in treating Strep throats, sinus infections and middle-ear infections.
Antibiotics kill the bacteria that cause infection.
But the longer the bacteria can survive, the more opportunity they have to mutate and turn into a more virulent strain. When people don't finish their course of antibiotics the fittest bacteria, the survivors, begin multiplying so that when the illness returns the first-line antibiotic is no longer effective and a stronger drug is required. Penicillin is now useless against some strains of tuberculosis, and against gonorrhoea in the Philippines where all strains are drug-resistant. He believes that 60,000 to 70,000 people die from hospital infections, half of which are caused by superbugs. Human resistance to life-saving drugs has also been accelerated by the routine addition of antibiotics to animal feed.