It is very important to follow these directions in order to get the maximum benefit of the antibiotic. The most important point is to take the antibiotic as prescribed. If there is any antibiotic remaining at the end of the prescribed therapy, throw it away. Many antibiotics will degrade over time and often the outdated or old material can cause unwanted side effects or simply will not be effective. There are an average of 4-6 new antibiotics introduced into medical practice each year.
Bacteria become resistant to the effects of antibiotics through a variety of methods.
Most resistant bacteria can produce substances which destroy the antibiotic. One of the major problems facing scientists today is that many of these bacteria have the ability to transfer this resistance to other bacteria, thus spreading the resistance. There are two major factors that contribute to the ongoing problems of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. They are the unnecessary use of antibiotics to prevent diseases and the misuse of antibiotics to treat diseases for which an antibiotic is not effective. There are no antibiotics which are useful for these diseases.