What are the precautions for taking antibiotics?

Antibiotics are a type of drug that many people often use when treating diseases. However, for drugs like this, people now have a more serious medical concept. We all know that antibiotics should not be used too much at ordinary times. However, when treating certain diseases, antibiotics must be used. So what should we pay attention to when using them?

Antibiotics should be used with caution by people with allergies, and these drugs are contraindicated for those who are allergic.

Macrolides, sulfonamides, and anti-tuberculosis and anti-fungal drugs should be used with caution in patients with liver dysfunction. When the latter two are used for a long time, liver function should be checked regularly. Cephalosporins can also damage liver function at higher doses.

Elderly and young patients should avoid using nephrotoxic and ototoxic drugs such as gentamicin, streptomycin, and kanamycin.

Sulfonamides suppress thyroid function and are contraindicated in patients with hypothyroidism.

Traditional Chinese medicine preparations such as Shuanghuanglian oral liquid, Andrographis paniculata tablets, Rubescens rubescens tablets, and Nasturtium lotus granules, and herbs such as wild chrysanthemum, honeysuckle, forsythia, dandelion, and scutellaria baicalensis are more suitable for non-purulent upper respiratory tract infections and have fewer side effects.

If there are no clear signs of infection, antibiotics should be avoided as much as possible to prevent the development of drug resistance (bacteria adapt to and resist drugs) and dual infection (after sensitive bacteria are killed, insensitive bacteria infect the body due to loss of antagonism).

Antibiotics also have the problem of antimicrobial spectrum, that is, which type of pathogenic microorganisms they mainly work against. For example, penicillin has antibacterial effects on pneumococci, streptococci, meningococci, gonococci, diphtheria bacteria, tetani bacteria and sensitive Staphylococci, but is almost ineffective against Shigella dysenteriae and Escherichia coli, which shows that "one medicine cannot cure a hundred inflammations."

In fact, sometimes different antibiotics are of the same type and have the same therapeutic effects. Therefore, when using antibiotics, you must be careful not to reuse them. The most important thing is that when you go to the hospital for treatment, you must take the medicine according to the doctor's instructions and don't just buy some medicine on your own.