Save the antibiotics
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Antibiotics treat bacterial diseases, and sometimes save lives. But can we save antibiotics? Bacteria are evolving ways to evade the effects of some crucial antibiotics. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researcher Lauri Hicks says that's partly because doctors and patients have given bacteria too many chances to evolve:
``There is a perception that antibiotics are always the answer when we get an infection. Most infections are actually caused by viruses. Prescribing antibiotics for viral infections like colds is the most common misuse of these drugs.'' (14 seconds)
Hicks advises using antibiotics for treatment of bacterial infections, but never for colds.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.