WC Roentgen

Actually, these manifestations are caused by people not taking the entire course of antibiotics. As soon as some patients feel relief they quit, that results in strengthening the germ.

Carnac

You might want to google that. I think overuse of antibiotics is known to have everything to do with it.

chambers92

True, that's also part of it. But it's also because we've been overusing antibiotics in this country for many years. Antibiotics have been handed out like candy and we're now paying the price.

WC Roentgen

Where I work they hand out pharma like candy allright, however, antibiotics may be the one exception they are prudent about.

chambers92

My HMO (Kaiser) prescribes antibiotics anytime someone complains of having a sinus headache. After taking antibiotics non stop for several years, I finally got smart, and switched to an ENT outside of Kaiser who said my sinus problems were either viral or from allergies. Turns out he was correct.

I know a lot of people who still take antibiotics whenever they have sinus problems instead of waiting to see if the problem clears upon it's own. Doctors need to stop assuming sinus problems are always bacterial.

Carnac

I guess I am healthy in spite of myself. I have not taken an antibiotic since I had root canals in 1998. I get them in my food. This is in the microbiology realm. It is about evolution. Staph aureus is part of everyday, it has lived in the skin of cavemen, it exists, and has had for years. I clarify staph aureus, it only became methicillin resistant within the last, well I don't know when. I know it was around when I first started work at the VA in 1986. If one is immunocompromised, it can get really bad. This is a new strain that is quite concerning though, even if you are not immunocompromised.