Emma Seyi-Onabule
Antibiotic is a medication that stops the growth of or destroys bacteria. They are wonderful drugs and have saved countless lives since their discovery. However many people in Nigeria, where you don’t need a prescription from a doctor to get any medication, believe its fine to take antibiotics for anything whether or not they need it.
The sad thing is that many people don’t know that taking antibiotics for every bit of discomfort or suspected infection can cause major problems. One of these problems is antibiotic resistance. This occurs when bacteria develops a way to resist the effects of the antibiotic, thereby making the infections they cause harder to treat.
One day a lady explained to me that her daughter had a chesty cough that was keeping her awake at night. I asked her how long she’d had the cough for and she said it had only started the day before. She then said that she was very upset because she couldn’t just buy antibiotics over the counter in the UK and if she were in Nigeria she would just walk into a chemist and purchase it no questions asked and give it to her daughter. I tried my best to explain that using an antibiotic as first line treatment could do more harm than good but she wasn’t prepared to listen. So in the end, I wished her well and left her in her ignorance.
In the west, where the use of antibiotics and indeed every medication is very tightly controlled, antibiotic resistance is a major problem, how much more in Nigeria where there’s virtually no control.
Antibiotics do not work on the common cold. This is because it is caused by a virus against which they are ineffective. The widespread use of these medicines in the misguided attempt to treat the common cold has led to the development of several strains of bacteria that are now antibiotic-resistant.
Sometimes, a bacterial infection will follow a cold virus. Signs that you may have a bacterial infection after a cold include pain around the face and eyes and coughing up thick yellow or green mucus. These symptoms are common with a cold, but if they last for more than a week, you may have a bacterial infection.
Also, some people, about one in 40,000, have a potentially fatal allergic reaction to some antibiotics. So when used by an untrained individual the consequences can be devastating. But people don’t make the connection; they just blame some African voodoo.
Antibiotic resistance is one of the world's most pressing public health problems. The more we use them, the more likely it is that bacterial resistance will develop. Some bacteria that cause potentially fatal infections in hospitals, such as methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin resistant staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) are resistant to several antibiotics.
When bacteria are repeatedly exposed to antibiotics (and when people do not complete their prescribed course of antibiotics) resistant bacteria are favoured. They survive and multiply.
When that happens, the illness will linger with no signs of getting better or it could suddenly take a turn for the worse.
You may have to seek emergency medical care, even be admitted to hospital, where different antibiotics may need to be administered through your veins. People around you may also get the resistant bacteria and come down with a similar illness that is difficult to treat.
With regards to children, if every time your child has the sniffles or cough you pump them full of antibiotics, how will their immune system develop?
Here are some important things to remember when you are thinking of taking antibiotics. Firstly, go to your doctor to determine whether or not you need them. Secondly, take them as prescribed i.e. at regular intervals and complete the full course, even if you start to feel better before the end of the course.
And lastly, don’t take someone else’s antibiotic, not all antibiotics are the same, you could be allergic to it or it could be the wrong one you need for your condition.
Irresponsible use of antibiotics contributes to the global antibiotic resistance crisis. You don’t have to go far to find an example.
I remember when I was in secondary school and we used to get chloroquine every week for malaria prophylaxis. We used to call it “sunday sunday medicine”. Now that same medication is ineffective against the malaria parasite because it was so misused.
Next time you want to reach for an antibiotic ask yourself if you really need it, as you could be doing, not just yourself, more harm than good.
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