Antibiotics: The Medicine We Can't Afford to Lose

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I was in the waiting room of my local health centre earlier, and I saw a poster reminding patients that antibiotics are an utterly ineffective treatment for colds and flu. Put simply, the common cold and influenza are viral infections, and antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infection. Fighting a cold with antibiotics is like trying to play a Wii game on a PS4 - it just won't work. Yet still people hound their GPs for the antibiotic comfort blanket, and all the time bacteria are becoming more resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them. When Alexander Fleming developed penicillin, it revolutionised medical science. Previously untreatable bacterial infections, from gangrene to gonorrhea, were now treatable. Countless deaths have been prevented by antibiotic intervention - but we are in danger of losing this great medicine. Over use , and over prescription of antibotics has seen bacterial resistance increase to the point that the World Health Organisation issued a warning that it is "an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society". So if I hear someone with a cold say they need a course of antibiotics to clear it up, I'll put them right on the issue. Antibiotics are too valuable to lose.