General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The doctor's office just told me that they were not allowed to call in [View all]magical thyme
(14,881 posts)and can confirm whether it is bacterial or viral, and then prescribe the most appropriate antibiotic, if necessary. The color green suggests there is an infection; it is not automatically bacterial.
Doctors willing to prescribe antibiotics either prophylactically (just in case) or just to shut up the demanders contribute greatly to the spread of antibiotic resistance.
When you ingest an antibiotic, it attacks both pathological and nonpathological bacteria in your entire system. The survivors are resistant to that antibiotic and can pass their resistance genes on to other bacteria.
So if you are subsequently exposed to nonresistant pathogens, they can pick up those resistance genes. That is how VRSA (vancomycin resistant staph) has appeared -- by normal staph picking up resistance genes from vanco-resistant enterococcus (VRE).