Are you abusing antibiotics?

Antibiotics are one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th Century. Suddenly diseases that were killing the masses had a cure. A miracle drug that cured everything had been discovered! But is this really true?

The once revered drugs have lost their edge. They are being used with reckless abandon.

We are popping them into our bodies like multivitamin tablets. Due to this misuse, antibiotics are slowly becoming ineffective in treating even simple infections.

How bad is the problem in Kenya?
Unlike in the past where visits to the doctor were few and far apart, Kenyans nowadays are going to hospital for every small ailment – including minor things like the common cold.

They also demand to be given antibiotics for every ailment. Not only that, they want the most powerful drugs in the market – simply because they require fewer doses and they can afford it. The situation is so bad that we are now having children with sore throats being injected with drugs usually reserved for life-threatening conditions such as meningitis.

Medical personnel have also contributed to this problem. We sometimes give in to patient drug demands or on other occassions we give antibiotics to patients ‘just in case the infection is bacterial’.

Since most urban Kenyans are internet savvy, there is now a culture of looking for medical information online and self-medicating.

What are the dangers of antibiotic misuse?

Unwanted side-effects: Most common are skin rashes, mouth sores, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, vaginal thrush, difficulty breathing, body swelling and, in some cases, kidney or even liver failure.

Weakened body defences: Once ingested, antibiotics are non-selective.

They will try to kill all the bacteria they come into contact with. Therefore, they will not only kill the ‘bad bacteria’ that are giving you the infection, they will also destroy your ‘good bacteria’ which are needed for normal body function. These good bacteria are found in your mouth, intestines, skin and reproductive system.

Unnecessary hospitalisation: If an antibiotic is taken inappropriately, your infection may appear to clear only for it to come back in a much stronger form a few days later.

In most cases, the infection is usually so severe that you end up being admitted to hospital.

Antibiotic resistance: When bacteria are exposed to inappropriate antibiotics, they become resistant to the drugs.

This leads to a phenomena known as ‘superbugs’. These do not respond to conventional antibiotic therapy.