As if I don’t have enough to worry about it…

I knew this day was coming…a bunch of companies signed a declaration I’ve been saying for years, that governments need to sponsor development of new antibiotics — it’s just not profitable for them to develop a drug that people only take for 10-14 days, versus drugs people can take for years (heart medications, etc–)

Antibiotics are not over prescribed as much as people think, and I’m tired of doctors being thrown under the bus — when a patient presents in a hospital with a severe infection (majority of patients of course having an elevated wbc, etc), the doctor has two choices: 1) provide supportive care and ‘wait and see what cultures come back’ (which usually minimum takes 2 days), risking the patient DYING in the process, or

2) jump in, provide supportive care, AND antibiotics, knowing the majority of antibiotics will NOT kill you–even if administered in massive doses–

I think modern medicine too often criticizes doctors after the fact, with hindsight information–ie, we know NOW the patient didn’t need antibiotics (or was given the wrong ones),

But the practice of medicine, is all about making the best choices possible with the information available to the doctor in that moment–

Decision–give a patient a drug which will NOT kill them, or, don’t give a patient a drug, which could kill them if they don’t–

We’ve known for years bacteria was becoming resistant. This isn’t a shock. It’s not because anyone did anything wrong, it’s because bacteria evolve and we have not done our due diligence as a society to evolve along with them.

It’s a simple as that. People just need to stop punishing doctors for doing their job…it’s going to make some afraid to do it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-sees-first-case-bacteria-resistant-antibiotics-003538244–finance.html

(And even if someone is really stuck on the myth of over-prescribing, I would say to them who gives a shit about that, it’s too late–drug resistant bacteria have arrived, they’re hete to stay, so what are we going to do about it. The over prescribing debate is like wasting time arguing over who spilt the milk–the debate we should be having, is how are we gonna clean this shit up ☺.)