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Antibiotics are medicines that work on bacteria. They don't work on viruses. That means they can help with a sinus infection or an ear infection, but are useless against the common cold, influenza, or other viral diseases. Different antibiotics have different degrees of effectiveness against different bacteria. That can vary even within a species of bacteria. That's where a big problem lies. Suppose you have a staph 1 infection. Your doctor prescribes 10 days of the antibiotic Methicillin to treat it. You take it for a few days, and then stop when you feel better. Guess what? You just helped to breed the bug that will kill us all. See, you haven't killed off all the bacteria. Furthermore, you've only killed off the bacteria with a weak natural resistance to Methicillin. The ones that are left are more resistant. They're in a weakened, vulnerable state. You need to take the full dose for the full duration so the levels of the antibiotic in your blood build up high enough and wipe out enough of the bacteria that your immune system can wipe out the rest. If you leave them alone, they'll regroup and recover. The next time you might not be able to use Methicillin on them. Not finishing a dose is just part of the problem. Some people hoard antibiotics for the next time they get sick. Not only do they fail to wipe out the first infection, but the next time around, they expose the bacteria to low doses of the antibiotic. There are bacteria in and on you all the time. Most of them are beneficial. There are some that are dangerous, but they are often kept in check by your immune system, competing bacteria, or simply not being somewhere dangerous 2. These bacteria will acquire a resistance to the antibiotic; the vulnerable ones will get killed off, leaving the strong ones to form the base of the next generation. The scariest thing I've left till last: bacteria can swap fragments of DNA. Your use of antibiotics may only directly spawn resistance in some benign bacterium, but that bacterium can contribute those genes to a completely unrelated nasty. That's another way to create a bug that could kill us all. There's no way to avoid these risks, but there are ways to reduce them. Don't take antibiotics based on your own judgment. Take them only for what they've been prescribed for, and finish the dose. In my experience, doctors have not been emphasizing those steps enough. There are only so many antibiotics out there, and the bacteria are evolving resistance faster than we're discovering new ones. Don't be the one who creates the superbug that wipes out the human race. Addendum: The elephant in the room I'm leaving out is antibiotics in meat supplies. The animals are fed bad food, kept in bad conditions, and are given megadoses of antibiotics in lieu of humane treatment. That means you probably get antibiotics in your meat, and they definitely flood the ecosystem from animal waste. I'm doing some part by not eating meat at all, and tending to buy organic animal products. I don't think there's much more you can do at an individual level without significantly amping up your commitment.
1 Genus Staphylococcus. Staph species cause skin infections, wound infections, catheter infections, etc. They reside in the soil, on your skin, and even in your mucous membranes, often doing little harm
2 Intestinal bacteria can be devastating in the bladder, for instance
Friday, February 22, 2008
Not everything can go in the trash. Batteries and fluorescent bulbs/tubes contain nasty stuff; they need to be disposed of properly. I know the City of Austin's web site tells what to do. Supposedly electronics retailers will take back batteries, and I've read that both Home Depot and Lowe's take back fluorescents, though I have not tried any of those.
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