• Knowledgebase: Antibiotic Information and Questions

    Questions about types of antibiotics, when to use them, and side-effects of using them.

    10. Can my daughter be immune to some antibiotics? - Top

    Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria and nothing else. Many infections are caused by viruses, therefore, antibiotics have no effect on these infections. Your child cannot be immune to antibiotics, but the Bacteria that may cause her infections may become immune to the antibiotic and subsequently, an infection may not respond to the medicine. We are seeing increased numbers of resistant bacteria. Over the past thirty years, we have had to develop new antibiotics to counter this bacterial resistance. Each new generation of antibiotics have become increasingly expensive. In the lest ten years this development of Bacterial resistance has appeared to be increasing at a faster rate and there are some concerns that we may return to times similar to the pre-antibiotic era when we had no defense against infections. We can reduce this possibility by trying to use antibiotics only when appropriate.
    - Updated: March 22, 2001

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    • James L Horwitz, MD

    David C. Thomas, MD

    Barbara Lindberg, PNP