Antibiotics for influenza: answers to all questions
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Doctors do not tire of repeating that antibiotics for influenza - a disease that has a viral pathogenesis - do not apply.
So the question is - what antibiotics should I take with the flu? - wrong and can be set only on condition that the master of it is still unknown the difference between bacteria and viruses. And in fact in this difference also there is a reason of that antibiotics at a flu and ORVI are not appointed or nominated.
Want to know exactly why contraindications to the use of antibiotics for influenza are recognized by all doctors, read on. And then you can ask the right question to the doctor, who - reinsuring in case of possible complications - can prescribe antibiotics to the child with the flu. In addition, a local doctor can simply make a mistake in diagnosis and, without analyzing the symptoms of respiratory disease, advise you to drink antibiotics for influenza in adults.
[Antibiotics for influenza and ARVI: cuique suum
Really, to each his own. Antibacterial drugs do not have biochemical and physiological effects on viruses, that is, the pharmacodynamics of antibiotics for influenza does not work. And this is despite the fact that antibiotics can overcome many types of dangerous pathogenic bacteria due to the ability to change the course of biochemical processes in their cells at the level of membrane damage, the termination of protein synthesis or the production of cellular enzymes. Suppressing the growth and reproduction of bacteria in this way, the drugs in this group eliminate the source of infection.
But antibiotics for influenza and ARVI are powerless: only immunoglobulins and antibodies produced by the immune system of our body can kill viruses, and interferons are proteins that activate the immune response in response to an attack of influenza, rhino and adenovirus viruses.
The influenza virus of the genus Influenzavirus A, B and C existing in the form of a particle (virion) is included in the family of orthomixoviruses (Ortomyxoviridae) - intracellular obligate parasites with an as yet undefined "pedigree". These parasites radically differ from pathogenic and conditionally pathogenic bacteria: the viruses do not have a cell, but there is a protein capsule with RNA fragments, so that proteins can be synthesized and viruses can be multiplied only after being placed in cells of another organism. To replicate the virus requires a protein of foreign cells, which he "borrows" for their needs. As noted by virologists, in the case of influenza spread by airborne droplets, the virus is most convenient to "cling" to the epithelial cells of the upper respiratory tract. And the adsorption system in the parasite is excellent: on the outer surface of its capsule there are villi, consisting of glycoprotein enzymes, which help to practically freely enter cells and start reproducing and producing their own proteins there.
Moreover, RNA replication takes place at the maximum speed, so as not to get under the distribution of the immune system, as it reacts to foreign virus proteins, which are antigens for the human body. That is why - unlike other respiratory diseases - the first phase of the flu is associated with intoxication, the signs of which are manifested by a significant increase in body temperature and chills, weakness and headache, a sharp eye, muscle aches and an aching all over the body. So to distinguish the flu from colds, in principle, it is easy.
Catarrhal phenomena with influenza also have their own peculiarities: dry nasopharyngeal mucosa causes a feeling of throat swelling, the nose is pawned by the swelling of its mucous membrane, a strong dry cough that causes chest pains appears. But even with the symptoms, even the best antibiotic for the flu will not help.
Antibiotics for influenza may be necessary in case of complications, for example, sinusitis, otitis or pneumonia, which develop due to activation of opportunistic microbes against the weakening of the body's defenses. But this will already be antibacterial therapy of the corresponding secondary disease, not the flu.