When should we take antibiotics?

Antibiotics should not be used to treat any flu, colds, most coughs and sore throats, simply because they are all viral infections. These will get better on their own sometimes in a few days and sometimes a little bit longer. If you can remember from the previous post antibiotics are useless against viral infections so even if you'd take them they wouldn't help. Also Viral infections are more common than Bacterial, which means it's more likely that when we ill we suffer from viral infection and we don't need to be treated with antibiotic(1).

Here are some examples of common infections caused by viruses and bacteria.
Viruses: cold, runny nose, cough, sore throat, ear infections, vomiting, diarrhoea.
Bacteria: urine/kidney infection, persisting cough (cough in people with chest problems), high fever, skin infections, meningitis(2)


Bacteria are relatively complex, single celled organisms, they can reproduce on their own and can survive extremities (extreme hot and cold). Most bacteria are harmless and useful (food digestion, fighting cancer cells) and only about 1% of them will make you ill. On the other hand viruses are tiny,  they need a host to survive and can only reproduce by attaching themselves to the cells (our cells in the body).  They reprogram the cells to make new viruses or simply kill them. It's viruses than turn the normal cells into cancer cells. Most of the viruses will cause a disease and hit the specific target in your body(3).

Antibiotics should be taken only when prescribed by a doctor (your GP) and never taken from anybody else e.g unused antibiotics of one of your family member. It is essential to finish all the course of the prescribed antibiotic even if you feel better before that point. If you stop taking your antibiotics too early the bacteria can become resistant to that antibiotic(4).

References:
(1)http://www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/ARC/pages/Whatareantibiotics.aspx
(2)http://www.hse.ie/eng/health/hl/hcaiamr/antibiotics/anti/

(3)http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/bacterial-and-viral-infections
(4)http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Antibiotics-penicillins/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Image: http://www.hse.ie/images_upload/portal/eng/services/healthpromotion/AntibioticAwareness/nopoint.jpg