Three reasons why you shouldn't take antibiotics without a doctor's prescription

Self-medication with antibiotics, their use, for example, in acute respiratory viral diseases - causes serious harm to the body. This was stated by Roman Kozlov, chief freelance specialist in clinical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance of the Russian Ministry of Health, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He gave three reasons why this should not be done.

1. Antibiotics are non-bizobid drugs that can cause adverse reactions, including allergies.

"Under no circumstances should you prescribe antibiotics on your own! You may not know what side effects you may experience specifically, and they are quite varied - from relatively minor (such as a rash) to life-threatening anaphylactic reactions," the expert said.

2. If the patient is taking any other drugs in parallel, they may interact with each other.

Such a "hellish mixture" can lead to unexpected and very unpleasant consequences

"When prescribing therapy, the doctor always takes into account the drug interactions of the antibiotic with other drugs that the patient takes, and the person himself is not able to do this," - the expert notes.

3. Uncontrolled intake of antibiotics leads to the emergence of dangerous strains of drug-resistant bacteria.

"Self-use of antibiotics can lead to the development of resistance in microorganisms, which in the future will significantly complicate the treatment of infections," - emphasizes Professor Kozlov.

"Even if a particular drug once helped you, you should not start taking it for similar symptoms without a doctor's prescription - the drug may not help if the infection is caused by another microorganism with a different sensitivity to antibiotics," Roman Kozlov noted.