SURRENDERED TO ANTIBIOTICS
The experts warned about the increase in body immunity against antibiotics due to the increase of upper respiratory infections and using un-prescribed antibiotics. Based on the 2013 data by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of Turkey, antibiotics continued to be the largest therapeutic class with 11.6%.
Dr. Yavuz Selim Süral, Lecturer at IUE Vocational School of Health Sciences, stated that the Smart Use of Medicine Bulletin, published by the Ministry of Health in January, warned about antibiotic resistance and provided information on smart use of medicines. Süral said, “Frequent and senseless use of antibiotics especially in our country even though they do not have pain killing or fever reducing effects, causes the resistance to be over the world average. Therefore, antibiotics designed for each bacterium should definitely be used by doctor’s recommendation and prescription.”
‘Using the Right Antibiotics’
Dr. Süral indicated that the Ministry warned about using three types of antibiotics which are for protection, pre-treatment, and targeted treatment, and said that using antibiotics for protection purposes was mainly for certain rheumatic diseases and pre-surgery. Dr. Süral said that antibiotics are believed to have fewer side effects and used for short period of time. He said, “In pre-treatment antibiotics are used for clinical symptoms such as fever, vomiting, coughing. However, most of the antibiotics are prescribed for patients with upper respiratory infections and acute bronchitis. Such infections are viral borne, self-limited diseases. Therefore, they either have limited effects or no effect at all. In targeted treatment, it is important to confirm the source of the infection, so that the microorganisms that cause infection can be targeted. Doctors need to follow the updated treatment guides when it comes to prescribing the right antibiotics.”
‘Hard to Treat against Resistance’
Microorganisms, when gained resistance as a result of excessive and unnecessary use of antibiotics, make harder to treat the illness in somebody else, stated Dr. Süral and said that use of more expensive antibiotics with more side effects has increased.
