Some scary things are happening. It is now resistant to most antibiotics and has resulted in many deaths. Another instance of a previously innocuous disease becoming a serious health risk has occurred in the American Southwest. Perhaps the most widespread use of antibiotics is in the treatment of colds and the flu. These diseases are not caused by bacteria which can be killed by antibiotics but by viruses which do not respond to these medications.
Physicians can come under terrific pressure from parents to prescribe antibiotics.
If you have a sick child who has an ear infection and is screaming with pain, you may not be in the mood for an academic discussion on the problems of emerging bacterial resistance. If you think that there is even a small chance that antibiotics will hasten the end of this illness, you will ask for newer and better antibiotics. One aspect of antibiotic treatment in Asia that surprises Western physicians is the widespread use of intravenous antibiotics. In the West this is only used for patients so sick that their ability to absorb food or drugs through the stomach is impaired, or in a few situations where the required drug does not exist in an oral form. Western doctors tend to believe that the oral route is superior, as the drugs absorb more slowly and a more even level of drug in the tissues can be maintained.