Superman, the Super Bowl, Super Mario Bros. Most things that start with the word super are pretty awesome. But we wouldn't say that about super gonorrhea, one of the many antibiotic-resistant diseases that have popped up in recent years.
We're seeing more and more of these superbugs, in part because we use antibiotics too frequently—and often in cases where they don't even work. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that one in three doctor-prescribed antibiotics is unnecessary.1
Antibiotics treat only bacterial infections. They won't do anything for a viral illness, like a cold, the flu, or bronchitis. So next time you get an Rx for antibiotics, it's worth double checking with your doctor to see if they'll really help.
(h/t Science.Mic)
Works Cited
- Prevalence of Inappropriate Antibiotic Prescriptions Among US Ambulatory Care Visits, 2010-2011. Fleming-Dutra KE, Hersh AL, Shapiro DJ. JAMA, 2016, undefined.;315(17):1538-3598.
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