Flu and cold medications
People tend to turn to the use of antibiotics for flu and colds when viral infections are widespread. Quite often, this group of drugs is used by adults in the autumn, winter and spring periods.
Before you drink an antibiotic if you suspect an acute respiratory viral disease, it is important to understand: is it advisable?
Antibiotics for influenza are an extreme measure that can be avoided with proper treatment. If you suspect a cold or a viral disease, the best solution is to contact your doctor. If you transfer a cold on your feet, the condition may worsen and complications will arise. The best site for finding and buying antibiotics antibiotics-antibacterials.net
Do antibiotics help with viral diseases
The use of antibiotics by a person will not work on the root cause of the flu. This is due to the fact that a virus causes a cold. The effect of antibiotics extends exclusively to bacteria, while influenza viruses (and other viruses) it does not concern. Viruses and bacteria, like different classes of microorganisms, have different structures, mechanisms of action on the human body and life cycles. Viruses are treated only with antiviral agents and their own immunity, so even the best antibiotic will not work on them. In addition, improper use of antibiotics negatively affects the immune system of adults and children, which slows down the recovery process, creates a risk of developing concomitant pathologies.
Prescribing antibiotics for influenza virus: when to do it
Experts recommend resorting to antibiotics as a last resort. For example, with a prolonged cold caused by a virus, or with the flu, when the body’s defenses weaken. At the same time, the mucous membranes that act as “gates” for various microorganisms (including pathogenic ones) cannot cope well with their duties and protect a person from the penetration of infections. In addition, the weakening of the body during a cold increases the likelihood that its own conditionally pathogenic microflora (which in a healthy adult does not lead to diseases) begins to multiply. Abnormally rapid reproduction and activity of conditional pathogens on the mucous membranes and in the respiratory tract, as well as the penetration of bacteria into the body from the outside leads to the development of dangerous diseases and their complications. This is called the attachment of a secondary bacterial infection.
The doctor may recommend the use of antibiotics when the disease does not go away for a long time. On average, colds tend to last a week, and people get sick with flu for up to two weeks. When a bacterial infection is attached, the duration of the disease increases, more and more unpleasant symptoms appear.
Antibiotics may be needed if the patient, in addition to the main symptoms, develops one or more signs of bacterial infection:
severe pain and tickling in the throat, pain when swallowing, irradiation in the ear;
significant inflammation and hyperemia of the tonsils, the appearance of a white plaque;
shooting pain in the ears;
enlargement of the cervical and submandibular lymph nodes in size and their soreness when probing;
chest pain;
wheezing in the lungs when breathing;
prolonged absence or severe hoarseness of the voice;
conjunctivitis;
prolonged temperature rise above 39 degrees, which is not lost by antipyretics;
pain in the forehead, bridge of the nose, in the area of the location of the maxillary sinuses;
shortness of breath with minor physical exertion and at rest;
difficulty breathing;
discharge of fluid from the ears;
a prolonged cough that does not go away for more than ten days;
pallor or cyanosis of the skin;
discharge of exudate with blood when coughing;
the appearance of a dry suffocating cough;
reduction of blood pressure.
Antibiotics that can be drunk with flu complications
Each of us should be aware that antibiotics are serious medications, and only a doctor can advise which drugs to drink to a patient. But he does not do it at random, but only after laboratory diagnostics. For adults and children, this procedure is the same: they need to take a biomaterial (most often it is sputum or smears from the mucous membranes of the nose and throat), after which a bacteriological seeding is carried out. The culture grown on the nutrient medium makes it possible to identify the microorganism that caused the complications. After that, a test is performed for the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics, called an antibiogram. The test results allow the doctor to find out exactly which antibacterial drugs are better to treat a particular patient. Such information makes it possible to cure the infection with antibiotics as quickly and effectively as possible without harming the patient’s health. In addition, when prescribing suitable antibiotics and following the course of administration, pathogenic bacteria will not be able to develop resistance to antibiotics. This will eliminate the risk of resistant strains in the body and subsequent treatment with other antibacterial drugs.