Antibiotic resistance: When and why we should avoid taking

The antibiotics are life saving medicines but increasing antibiotic resistance is a huge problem. Antibiotics resistance means that the antibiotics is no longer effective, the bacteria became resistant to an antibiotic and won't be killed/stopped by an antibiotic treatment.

The antibiotic resistance is driven by overuse or inappropriate prescribing. To slow down the process of resistance we should take antibiotics only when it's absolutely necessary and in a right way so the antibiotics will remain effective in the future(1). We cannot stop the process completely but at least we can slow it down and get some time for new antibiotics to be developed(2).

Antibiotic resistance is a major problem and awareness of this problem in our society is one of the keys to slowing it down. On the 18th of November every year the European Antibiotics Awareness Day is held (EAAD). Fewer new antibiotics are developed each year which is difficult when the resistance is increasing rapidly, so when you're in a situation when you have to use antibiotics, use them in an appropriate way exactly as prescribed(1): 

• complete the whole course as prescribed by your doctor 
• do not skip any doses (if you did take it asap and continue your course as before, do not overdose don't take double doses if you missed one before- it might increase the side effects)
• take antibiotics at regular intervals 
• do not save any antibiotics for later 

The picture below clearly explains how the antibiotics resistance spreads and simply using the antibiotics will create a resistance(3). 

References:
(1)http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/ARC/pages/AboutARC.aspx
(2)http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/ARC/pages/Whatareantibiotics.aspx
(3)http://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/2013/dpk-untreatable.html