AT Doctors / Nurses - how often is too often when taking Z-Pack?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I travel internationally a lot to Asia. I usually get a bottle of 30-some Z-pack pills that I take traveling with me, along with cipro.

I go through the full z-pac regimen about four times a year as needed. I want to limit my antibiotic use for obvious reasons, so I'm wondering if four times a year is too often for treating travel-related bacteria infections? Is there a number of separate treatments where I should try limiting myself to per year?

Usually it's for either a lung infection that doesn't go away after a week or traveler's diarrhea. I currently have a mild case of the latter in China (for the past three days), but the only symptom is watery stool 3-4 times a day - no nausea, fatigue, or other discomfort.

 

[Strk]

So you just take it because you feel iffy?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

So you just take it because you feel iffy?

No, of course not. If I cough up brown/yellow phlegm for a week straight that's when I take it. If I have watery stool for a week straight I take it as well. Those are traditional signs of a bacterial infection that's not clearing up on its own, no?

 

[Captante]

Good lord ... Its been nearly 10 years since I took ANY antibiotic at all!

Yeah the phlegm thing is a sign of infection but needing that much medicine just to stay alive is more along the lines of a factory-farm chicken then a healthy human being!


Edit: I think you should seriously consider that there may be something wrong with your immune-system if your actually getting very sick that often.

 

[Ackmed]

Hows about manning up, stop taking shit for nothing.

 

[PottedMeat]

I travel internationally a lot to Asia. I usually get a bottle of 30-some Z-pack pills that I take traveling with me, along with cipro.

I go through the full z-pac regimen about four times a year as needed.

there must be some interesting resistant bacteria in your gut by now

 

[brainhulk]

There's was a study a couple of years ago that linked azithromycin to fatal arrhythmia/sudden cardiac death.

Also antibiotics kill off the natural flora in your gut. Allowing really nasty stuff to grow. Take probiotics or deal with fecal transplant

 

[SirStev0]

I am just a Cock Doc, but Azithromycin has been related to QT prolongation which can lead to fatal arrhythmia.
Also, frequent antibiotics lead to resistance.

In theory, a healthy person should not be getting Bacterial PNa or Resp Infection just because of travel. GI infections I can see because your not used to the bacteria floral of that land.

I imagine your respiratory illness are more likely viral and shouldn't necessitate antibiotics. Maybe try to cut back.

The STD's though.. those do respond to Azithromycin so you are covered there at least.

 

[Murloc]

it's very weird that this happens to you so often.
Maybe you should investigate that, and stop any dangerous behaviours, like eating street food or drinking tap water or getting cold on the airplane.

Having 1 week of diarrhea is just not normal, unless you keep eating the same shit that caused it the first day.
Traveler's diarrhea should go away without antibiotics.

 

[disappoint]

Wouldn't it be better to ask this question to the prescriber of the medication or the pharmacist?

 

[K1052]

Unless you're swimming in raw sewage when you're over there that's a lot of infections or something else is making you vulnerable.

Time to go to the docs and get checked out instead of just eating antibiotics like they're tic tacs.

 

[Brainonska511]

Thank you for helping to contribute to the unnecessary overuse of antibiotics and helping bacteria everywhere acquire new resistance.

Instead of self-medicating, you should be seeing a doctor.

Wouldn't it be better to ask this question to the prescriber of the medication or the pharmacist?

In some countries, you can just buy antibiotics OTC.

 

[Mike64]

Wouldn't it be better to ask this question to the prescriber of the medication

:thumbsup: (this isn't really even a question for a pharmacist.)

I'm not saying this just to be rude, but to be somewhat blunt about it, self-over-medicators and the MDs who enable them are a part of the reason antibiotic resistance has gotten well past being a public heath "issue" to become a public heath "crisis."

That aside, and stating up front that I'm no kind of MD, you should be seeing a doctor before you take it in general (lower respiratory and long-running GI infections can lead to serious consequences), and you should definitely see a doctor the next time either illness occurs, because it really does sound like something more involved than simply becoming re-infected is probably going on with you.

But first off, no, coughing up yellow, brown or even green-colored phlegm doesn't necessarily mean a bacterial infection. They used to think so, but further investigation has shown that (dis)colored phlegm by itself is not a good indicator of bacterial vs viral infection. Second, treatment for GI infections is different than treatment for other parts of the body where the antibiotics are delivered by the circulatory system. Assuming your gut trouble is bacterial, you'd need something that stays active throughout the GI tract itself, not something that is primarily absorbed in the higher areas of the tract. Zithromax may or may not be appropriate. I have no idea, but with no offense intended, it sounds like you don't either. Was it ever prescribed by any MD for your specific GI symptoms?

As for limiting the use of antibiotics, it sounds like you're confused about the nature of antibiotic resistance. You're body doesn't become resistant to antibiotics, bacteria do. If you're truly getting new bacterial infections every time you get sick, and the bacteria responsible aren't resistant to azithromycin, there's no particular reason to limit your use of that drug. On the other hand, if your respiratory and/or GI tracts have become colonized with resistant bacteria, which may well be the case, then obviously taking azithromycin is going to do you little to no good in the longer run. At best, it'll temporarily knock back the bacterial count leaving you feeling better for a while, but not actually eradicating the infection, while further encouraging the growth of resistant bacteria every time you take it.

PS: Zithromax is relatively safe, yeah, but Cipro, less so. That especially should not be a self-medicator's first drug of choice...

 

[Mike64]

In some countries, you can just buy antibiotics OTC.

Not to mention all too easily, with a long-distance "prescription" based only on an Internet "consultation" and self-described symptoms. Complete with lack of guarantee that you're getting the drug you think you're getting and/or that it's expiration wasn't sometime in distant past...

 

[Jodell88]

STOP TAKING ANTIBIOTICS!!!

There are other ways to get rid of Montezuma's Revenge.
Go see a fucking doctor. Jesus Fucking Christ.