Antibiotics are medicines that kill or prevent the growth of bacteria. They can be taken by mouth or injected into a vein (IV). Most antibiotics have side effects, such as diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea. Some can also cause serious side effects, such as a blood disorder called hepatotoxicity (damage to the liver), kidneys, and bone marrow. Some can even lead to permanent damage to the nervous system or eyes. For this reason, it is important to take the full course of antibiotics as prescribed by your doctor and to follow the instructions in the patient information leaflet that came with your medicine.
Whenever possible, doctors try to use antibiotics that are effective against the type of bacteria that are most likely to be causing infection. When this is not possible, they may test samples of the infecting bacteria for their susceptibility to different antibiotics. This testing can be done in a laboratory, but results usually take a day or two and can delay starting treatment.
Because antibiotic resistance is such a concern, there are a number of ethical issues related to how antibiotics are used and distributed. These include equitable access, the avoidance of unnecessary antibiotic use, and balancing the risk of using antibiotics with the need to treat infections quickly. The social determinants of health, such as income and location, can have a major impact on antibiotic accessibility and use [9]. There are also concerns about the impact that unequal access has on the development of resistant infections, which in turn can affect everyone’s ability to receive effective treatment.
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