Medicine's Inability To Quell Demand For Antibiotics

[gl556tr]

Almost weekly, one hears of patients DEMANDING antibiotics when seeking treatment - no matter whether it be viral or bacterial infection. The occasional rider that simple coughs and sneezes could be a world-wide threat as no/few new antibiotics are being developed, and MRSA inside and outside the hospital are no longer a rarity, seems to bother little the general public and, improbably, many medical professionals.
__That the latter so often appear to succumb to patients' ignorant demands for antibiotics speaks volumes for their moral and professional authority.

[sandyRoe]

Could there be a niche in the market for a placebo antibiotic? The bossy patients would get something they thought was doing them good and the doctors would know, in prescribing it, that they weren't doing any harm.

[woofgang]

Well I don't think doctors have got any moral authority, why should they have? My own surgery doesn't dish out antibiotics like sweeties. I do wonder whether in fact the "we hear" is code for "alarmist newspapers tell us and we don't investigate for ourselves" especially with the rider about coughs and sneezes. Coughs and sneezes are symptoms and have never of themselves killed anybody, its the cause of the coughs and sneezes that are the killer or not. Yes I am well aware that damage by historical over prescription of antibiotics has been done and can't be undone but I don't believe that her in the Uk, it continues.
If you read the news briefing for the actual report, Europe comes out rather well and I suspect that the UK alone would come out rather better, the greater problem lies with countries where antibiotics are available for purchase without any prescription or other control.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/antibiotic-resistance-lacking/en/