Antibiotics why do you have to finish

But Martin Llewelyn, a professor in infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex medical school, and colleagues claim that this is not the case. There are some diseases where the bug can become resistant if the drugs are not taken for long enough. The most obvious example is tuberculosis, they say. People fall ill only when the bug gets into the bloodstream or the gut. The longer such bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the more likely it is that resistance will develop.

The experts say there has been too little research into the ideal length of a course of antibiotics, which also varies from one individual to the next, depending in part on what antibiotics they have taken in the past. In hospital, patients can be tested to work out when to stop the drugs. She added, however, that doctors don't often know when a shorter course of antibiotics is as effective as a longer one. As an example, she said that recent studies have shown that a six-day regimen of antibiotics is as effective as 10 days for people with skin infections, as originally prescribed; and a five-day regimen is as effective as 10 days for people with pneumonia.

But shorter durations did not prove as effective for ear infections in very young children , she said. The length of the antibiotic regimen for any given case is not arbitrary. Regimens are based on clinical studies done when the drugs were first tested, Boucher said.

Newer, more refined studies often reveal more effective lengths that strike the balance between killing the bacteria causing an infection and not flooding the environment with more antibiotics. Boucher is also involved in the leadership of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and she noted that this professional society of more than 10, health specialists has a strong interest in conducting studies to understand the best minimal dose of antibiotic regimens. Both Boucher and Llewelyn said patients should not "self-medicate" with antibiotics, or simply stop when they are feeling better.

Rather, they should follow their doctor's instructions about when to stop. The opinion piece stated that some health authorities have recently replaced the phrase "complete the course" with messages advocating taking antibiotics "exactly as prescribed. Follow Christopher Wanjek wanjek for daily tweets on health and science with a humorous edge. Wanjek is the author of "Food at Work" and "Bad Medicine. Do you still have to keep taking your prescription? Well, yes…and no! According to Gwen Egloff-Du, Pharm.

Bacteriostatic antibiotics, like azithromycin and doxycycline , stop bacterial growth. Bactericidal antibiotics, like amoxicillin and cephalexin , kill the bacteria itself. If you have a bacterial infection requiring antibiotic therapy, says Long, he or she will consider the organ system affected.

Different parts of the body harbor different types of bacteria common to that location, so healthcare providers prescribe antibiotics that have a good chance of being effective there i. What gives? Egloff-Du says there are two reasons why you need to take the full prescribed treatment of antibiotics.