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To: average joe who wrote (61)	10/26/2001 10:03:01 AM
From: Jill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 827

You are partially right. Taking an antibiotic for less than the recommended time may mean that the bacterial infection you are trying to combat will be only partially eradicated. However, most bacteria exchange genes all the time. (Bacterial sex, so to speak). And taking any antibiotic breeds resistance in other "harmless" bacteria. That's why there is now a form of staph called vancomycin resistant staph--deadly. When staph is usually fairly harmless. So over prescription of antibiotics in general has led to a serious problem. New generations of bacteria can form every twenty minutes inside your body--so over a period of days, for instance, there is ample chance for mutations, and for breeding some generations that are resistant. Viruses tend to run a course. Yours probably did, and the penicillin AND the cipro were just coincidental--unless you had a concomitant bacterial infection. Were you coughing up yellow or green sputum for instance? (Even then it can be viral. Docs really need to culture the sputum to find out but they never take the time). Anyway...its common for docs to give out abx as a way of giving the patient "something" because he feels ill & he went all the way to the doc. It's bad medicine tho. Sugar pills would be better. Or docs can write out a prescription for an over the counter med like benadryl or nyquil...sometimes writing the scrip is enough to make the patient feel he was "taken care of." Etc.