Dr Lo Tze Shien
KUCHING: The use of antibiotics in the treatment of illnesses such as fever and sore throat can be harmful.
This was revealed by University of North Dakota Professor of Medicine Dr Lo Tze Shien who pointed out that antibiotics, when prescribed to treat virus infections, is futile.
“Upper respiratory infections such as coughing and runny nose are often caused by virus but these cannot be cured by taking antibiotics,” he told reporters at a press conference here recently.
Dr Lo, who is a Sarawakian currently residing in America where he is also the VA Medical Center chief (Infectious Diseases) at Fargo, North Dakota, was in Kuching to present lectures on infectious diseases at the Sarawak General Hospital Heart Centre.
The abuse of antibiotics in medication, he stressed, is ever present in countries around the globe.
“Antibiotics should only be used to treat bacterial infection as it is totally redundant on viruses.
“If antibiotics are taken unnecessarily, it can eventually create problems such as bacteria resistance in the body to the antibiotics,” he explained.
According to him, when patients are not exposed to antibiotics, there is a balance of good and bad bacteria in the intestines.
“However, if you take antibiotics, it will wipe out the good bacteria and the bad bacteria will be left creating an imbalance.”
Citing the ‘clostridium difficile’ one of the ‘bad’ bacteria present in the intestines as an example, Dr Lo said that this bacteria is in control in the body due to the presence of good bacteria such as probiotics suppressing it.
“If you take antibiotics unnecessarily, then the good bacteria will be destroyed and the clostridium difficile will grow causing inflammation in the intestines,” he said, adding that in severe cases, it will lead to fatality.
On how viral infections can be treated, Dr Lo said usually the “infection will run its course.”
“Viruses that cause upper respiratory infections in the likes of fever, sore throat, and so on will go away eventually provided that the patient gets lots of rest, drinks more fluids.”
In order to address this issue, he said apart from healthcare personnel, patients and their family should also be educated and made aware on antibiotic prescriptions.