4 ms·

Okay, I've read enough articles on superbugs to be seriously frightened. My question: is there anything I, personally, can do to help?

lunchladydoris 10y ago
There are two small things you can do: 1. Always finish your course of antibiotics. Even if you're feeling better. The course is as long as it is for a reason. 2. If for some reason you choose not to do (1) above, do not ever give someone what is left over from your course.
- askvictor 10y ago
  There is little evidence behind the length of the antibiotic course[1]. Depending on the type of infection, coming off antibiotics early may be better for you (OTOH, this can lead to a bad outcome for you too). [1] https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2015/202/3/knowing-when-stop-antibiotic-therapy https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2015/202/3/knowing-when-stop-...
DanBC 10y ago
Ask your doctor to sign up to antibiotic guardian style schemes. Ask your doctor what happens if you don't take antibiotics - are they really needed for this illness? If you do get antibiotics take the full course. Take them correctly, according to the instructions.
askvictor 10y ago
Don't eat meat, eggs or dairy that use antibiotics in their normal rearing practices (organic is a good alternative, or look for antibiotic free foods, or minimise eating of those altogether). Talk about this with others, in a non confrontational and non judgemental way. Also, don't take antibiotics yourself unless you are certain they are necessary; many infections are non bacterial, and even some bacterial infections can be fought off by your body quite well. Look after your immune system; it looks after you. Ironically, taking antibiotics might negatively impact your immune system due to the impact of the antibiotics on your intestinal floral (mostly bacteria, a lot of which are killed during the course), which are increasingly being linked to healthy immune function.
Hondor 10y ago
News is made to scare people, so however frightening it sounds, it's probably not going to be that bad. There's probably no value in taking any action besides going to work as usual and providing value to society in the way you're best at. One possible reason not to worry is antibiotic cycling. Bacteria lose their resistance to individual antibiotics when we stop giving them exposure to them, so the idea is that we could breed out old resistance while breeding in new resistance and always have a drug available that they're defenseless against.
mlinksva 10y ago
Send the last three paragraphs of the article to your politicians. Excerpt: > Congress should instead reward manufacturers that bring a targeted, highly innovative antibiotic to market with a substantial financial prize; in exchange, manufacturers would surrender their patent.

lunchladydoris 10y ago

There are two small things you can do: 1. Always finish your course of antibiotics. Even if you're feeling better. The course is as long as it is for a reason. 2. If for some reason you choose not to do (1) above, do not ever give someone what is left over from your course.

askvictor 10y ago
There is little evidence behind the length of the antibiotic course[1]. Depending on the type of infection, coming off antibiotics early may be better for you (OTOH, this can lead to a bad outcome for you too). [1] https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2015/202/3/knowing-when-stop-antibiotic-therapy https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2015/202/3/knowing-when-stop-...

DanBC 10y ago

Ask your doctor to sign up to antibiotic guardian style schemes. Ask your doctor what happens if you don't take antibiotics - are they really needed for this illness? If you do get antibiotics take the full course. Take them correctly, according to the instructions.

askvictor 10y ago

Don't eat meat, eggs or dairy that use antibiotics in their normal rearing practices (organic is a good alternative, or look for antibiotic free foods, or minimise eating of those altogether). Talk about this with others, in a non confrontational and non judgemental way. Also, don't take antibiotics yourself unless you are certain they are necessary; many infections are non bacterial, and even some bacterial infections can be fought off by your body quite well. Look after your immune system; it looks after you. Ironically, taking antibiotics might negatively impact your immune system due to the impact of the antibiotics on your intestinal floral (mostly bacteria, a lot of which are killed during the course), which are increasingly being linked to healthy immune function.

Hondor 10y ago

News is made to scare people, so however frightening it sounds, it's probably not going to be that bad. There's probably no value in taking any action besides going to work as usual and providing value to society in the way you're best at. One possible reason not to worry is antibiotic cycling. Bacteria lose their resistance to individual antibiotics when we stop giving them exposure to them, so the idea is that we could breed out old resistance while breeding in new resistance and always have a drug available that they're defenseless against.

mlinksva 10y ago

Send the last three paragraphs of the article to your politicians. Excerpt: > Congress should instead reward manufacturers that bring a targeted, highly innovative antibiotic to market with a substantial financial prize; in exchange, manufacturers would surrender their patent.