Alex Chiri's Blog Life, technology, music, Holland

Antibiotics might kill E. Coli and…you   

In the last number of Scientific American, a short story related to the E. Coli "outbreak" from this spring caught my attention. (By the way, I like the whole magazine, it has good articles, but this small one seems a little more useful to the larger public).
It seems that the strain of E. Coli that became too famous this year is resistant to more than 14 antibiotics and if that's not enough, if you try to treat it with antibiotics some might cause the bacteria to release a dangerous quantity of toxins when it dies, putting your life in danger even more. So the safe thing to do would be to go to a doctor, instead of treating yourself.

I know that in Romania self-applied medicine is a normal custom and there's also a conception that you should treat almost "everything" with antibiotics, to be sure that you're healed.