Antibiotics: friend or foe?
Antibiotic treatment is one of the most important tools in modern medicine, but also one of the most misused. Parents naturally want their children to recover quickly, and doctors sometimes feel compelled to prescribe antibiotics. As a result, antibiotics are frequently prescribed for viral infections, even though they have no effect on viruses. Approximately 90% of childhood infections are caused by viruses, which antibiotics simply cannot destroy.
How do antibiotics actually work?
Originally, antibiotics came from living organisms: penicillin, for example, came from mold. They work either by directly killing bacteria or by preventing them from reproducing. This makes them very effective against bacterial infections, but completely ineffective against viruses. Worse still, when administered unnecessarily, they destroy beneficial bacteria that help your child's immune system fight off illness, which can leave the body vulnerable to a secondary bacterial infection.