MadSci Network: Immunology
Query:

Re: Can nurses become resistant to medicine when giving them to the patients ?

Date: Sat Aug 4 17:54:49 2001
Posted By: Brian Edelson, MD/PhD Student
Area of science: Immunology
ID: 993205354.Im
Message:

I could find no evidence of this sort of problem happening to nurses.  
Antibiotic resistance, however is a major problem, and there are steps 
which society needs to take to prevent this from continuing to occur.

First, antibiotics should only be given by a doctor when there is evidence 
for a bacterial infection that will be correctly treated with the chosen 
antibiotic.  Second, the chosen antibiotic should not be the strongest, 
most powerful broad-spectrum drug possible, if a different, simpler 
antibiotic would also work equally well.  Use of the newest, strongest 
antibiotics should be limited to those cases which really need them, to 
prevent bacteria from gaining resistance to these drugs.  Third, any 
course of antibiotics should be completed, and not stopped in the middle 
after symptoms have disappeared.  Stopping a course in the middle 
encourages the growth of antibiotic resistant microorganisms, making the 
infection harder to treat if it comes back in the patient, or if this 
infection is passed on from the patient to another person.  Hope this 
information helps.


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