Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparkle
What people don't seem to realise.... snip
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Very well put.
Antibiotics in the UK were put under the control of doctors to try to prevent all this happening. But once the medication gets out of their control and into the hands of patients, it's inevitable that some will not complete their course and perhaps cause the evolution of another resistant strain.
In France it's another matter altogether. Doctors were dishing out antibiotics even when they would do no good at all, just because the patients would DEMAND them!
As said earlier in this thread, antibiotics are a double-edged sword that not only attack the "bad" bacterial infection, but also the "good" bacteria that live in our gut allowing us to absorb nutrients from our food. Kill them and the body can be deprived of nutrients the body urgently needs during an infection.
And another method the body uses to fight infection is fever. Raise the temperature and kill off a lot of "bad" bacteria. But what do we do? Take drugs to stop fever! OK, a high fever can be nasty, but low-grade fevers are our friends! We have evolved a fairly good immune system, and should allow it to at least TRY to heal us, instead of overriding it and allowing it to become "bored" and perhaps then start attacking healthy cells.
Another difference between France and the UK is that we rely on bactericides to disinfect, the French use good old bleach.