The Chamber of Pharmacists in the German state of Lower Saxony warned against the use of antibiotics in the treatment of viral infections, stressing that their use should be limited to treating bacterial infections.
Experts also stressed the need to adhere to the scheduled intake times for antibiotics to have the desired effect. If the doctor prescribes taking antibiotics “3 times a day”, then they must be taken every 8 hours.
The importance of this is that antibiotics work best when levels of the drug in the body have not fallen too low.
In addition, antibiotics must be taken for the entire period prescribed by the doctor. If treatment is stopped prematurely, the disease-causing bacteria will remain in the body, which may prolong the infection. So it is not permissible to stop taking antibiotics once you feel better.
Antibiotics are among the most prescribed medicines by doctors, and they work to kill the bacteria that cause disease, but they are not a cure for all diseases.
Secretary General of the German Society of Internal Medicine, Professor Ulrich Folch, defined antibiotics as drugs that affect the life of bacteria, or in other words, kill pathogens and prevent their growth.
Folch added that antibiotics only help in treating diseases caused by bacteria, such as tonsillitis, pneumonia, cystitis and meningitis, while they have no effect on infections caused by viruses, and therefore they do not help in treating influenza.
However, bacteria can easily attack the body and multiply due to the weakening of the body caused by a viral infection. For example, a viral infection in the lung eventually leads to bacterial pneumonia, so it may sometimes be necessary to take antibiotics. Even in viral infections.
