Human Wrongs Watch
By Martin Khor*
– The next time you have a bad cold and reach for the antibiotics left over from your last visit to the doctor, think again.
Unregulated sales of antibiotics are contributing to growing resistance. Credit: Adil Siddiqi/IPS
Firstly, the antibiotics won’t work as they only act against bacteria while the cold is caused by a virus.
Secondly, you will be contributing to the arguably the world’s gravest health threat – antibiotic resistance.
The wrong use and over-use of antibiotics is one of the main causes why they are becoming increasingly ineffective against many diseases, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood disorders, gonorrhoea and foodborne diseases.
While an effective antibiotic kills most of the targeted germs, a few may survive and develop resistance which can spread to other bacteria that cause the same infection or different infections.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 