I developed a cough following a cold and went to my doctor expecting he would give me an antibiotic. But to my surprise he didn't. I think I would have preferred if he had prescribed a course of antibiotics to be on the safe side, so why didn't he?
I can only presume that after examining you, your doctor's opinion was that an antibiotic would be ineffective against the infection you have. If his clinical diagnosis was that your symptoms were the result of a viral illness, then his decision not to prescribe antibiotic treatment was the correct one.
Antibiotics are a safe and effective treatment for bacterial infections. They are used to treat a range of disorders caused by bacteria that cause minor infections such as conjunctivitis to life-threatening conditions such as meningitis or pneumonia. However, antibiotics are ineffective against viruses.
How do antibiotics work?
Generally speaking, they work in one of two ways: bactericidal antibiotics work by killing the organism directly while bacteriostatic antibiotics halt the multiplication of bacteria enabling the body's natural defences to overcome the remaining infection.
GPs used to give prescriptions for antibiotics all the time. In fact, as a child, I remember my mother always had a bottle of penicillin in stock just in case we got sick. Why do doctors seem so reluctant to prescribe them now?
The over-treatment of infection with antibiotics has led to the situation where resistance has developed in certain types of bacteria to the effects of particular antibiotics. Doctors are now trying to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance by selecting the drug most likely to eliminate the bacteria present in each individual case rather than treat everyone with broad spectrum antibiotics at the sign of the first sniffle.
When bacteria become resistant to antibiotic treatment it can lead to the emergence of a strain of bacteria which flourishes despite treatment. This results in prolonged illness for the sufferer and increases the chance it will spread to others. An example of this is MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureas), a bacteria which has become resistant to many antibiotics leaving only a limited number of treatments effective against it.