What are the most common misconceptions about antibiotics?
The biggest misunderstanding is if you have an infection, you should take antibiotics. But they target only bacterial infections, so if you have a cold or a viral flu, antibiotics aren’t going to help you. And doctors prescribe them like candy, often to appease patients who come in with colds. So a doctor might say, here, take it for a number of days and you’ll be fine. I think it would be better if doctors gave these patients sugar pills. There are also people who have unused prescription antibiotics lying around the house. When they feel a sore throat coming on they take a pill, thinking that it works as a preventive. This could create more problems and doesn’t solve any. Based on this study, what would you advise health providers? We should minimize antibiotics, in the agriculture sphere as well as in the clinic. We should use them only for patients who really need them, and those patients should take the full course. Third, we should develop new antibiotics that are unlikely to mut
