Antibiotics are often being discussed in the media due to the increasing resistance and therefore reduced effectiveness at combating the infections they were designed to fight. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) state that this resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health currently and, although it is a natural process, it is being accelerated by misuse of the medications.
A lot of the responsibility for the correct use of antibiotics may be placed on health care professionals, however there are some simple steps that individuals may take to assist with the prevention of accelerating the current crisis. These include; only taking antibiotics when they have been prescribed, never sharing, never using leftover drugs or insisting on a prescription when you have been advised they will not be an effective treatment by your doctor. We can all also try to prevent the infections initially by practicing good hygiene with food preparation, frequent hand washing, avoiding others who have infections and ensuring our vaccinations are accepted at the appropriate times.
We all want our antibiotics to be available to help us fight infections for years to come so we must all play our part in minimising the growing resistance.
There are many different types of antibiotics which all are tailored for different infections. The 7 main groups are; Penicillins, Cephalosporins, Macrolides, Fluoroquinolones, Sulfonamides, Tetracyclines and Aminoglycosides.
Antibiotics can be used to treat everything from sinus infections through to STIs that have been detected using Home StI kits Greenwich way such as the ones available from https://www.checkurself.org.uk/plus/home_sti_kits/. However their overuse has led to a number of strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
