Antibiotics and Bacterial Infections

Antibiotic surveillance and safety concerns

In the time since penicillin was discovered nearly 80 years ago, antibiotics became one among the foremost important lifesaving weapons in doctors' arsenal against bacterial infection. Now, the Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix grocery chain is making a gift of seven of those drugs freed from charge to those that have prescriptions for them. Five of those are amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephalexin, erythromycin and penicillin VK -- are commonly employed by doctors to treat bacterial infections starting from ear infections to gonorrhea. But two of the drugs on the list -- ciprofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim -- are high-grade antibiotics that doctors usually reserve for particularly serious infections.

While some hail the program as a godsend, others fear that the move could lead on to overuse of the drugs.

This is because the utilization of antibiotics comes attached with important considerations. consistent with the American Academy of Family Physicians, there are certain situations during which antibiotics are helpful -- and lots of during which they will cause more harm than good.

Penicillins, Cephalosporins, Aminoglycosides, Glycopeptides, Tetracyclines are antibiotics most ordinarily showing side effects