antibiotics for virus??? (a short vent)

[valeria_vi]

i had posted late sunday night that my dh was having a fever and i was looking for more natural ways to fight it off 9teh ones i knew and tried did not work). anyway, on monday he had a doc's appointment, 'cause we were thinking he might be having a strep throat in addition (or as a part) of whtever bug it wa shat he caught. well, it was not strep throat, just a virus. doc's reccomendation: drink a lot of water, sleep, and rest!
so far so good, right? (sometimes our doc is too medical for me, but in general he is not all that bad)
our best friend had called last night and we were chatting and i told her my dh was sick, had a fever and stuff, but he's doing better now. "it's just a virus", I told her. "he's drinking a lot and the fever was gone in 2 days. he took 2 days off work and he'll be fine". he response: "why didn't the doctor give him antibiotics? he'd feel better sooner". so i repeated that it is not a becterial infection that he's got, but a virus, and she... "my doc always gives me antibiotics when i have a virus". so i tell her that antibiotics do not work on viruses, they only work on bacteria and she probably was feeling better regardless of antibiotics, 'cause a viral infection does not last forever, but she just kept insisting on how antibiotics make her viral infections go away and how much better she feels when she takes them.
:
i realised it's not worth trying to push it on her, 'cause here i am telling her stuff and she won't listen anyway, so I just said "well, our doctor thinks antibiotics will not help in this case and Ross (dh) is getting better without them anyway."
Grrrrrrrr!!!
this woman is 33 and is about to become a mom! I am 22 and sometimes i feel i know much more then people way older then I am.
Dont get me wrong - she is a very dear friend of mine (a best friend, as a matter of fact), I love her to pieces, but this whole thing just really got me. She is the "do whatever the doc tells me" type of girl, and as we can see sometime the docs are wrong, but she does not realise it because she won't educate herself.

[veggiewolf]

I am surprised by the amount of doctors that prescribe low-grade antibiotics for viral conditions. Many of them do it because people expect a doctor to hand them a prescription when they are sick, and they get very upset if they leave the office without that little piece of paper. Is your friend the type who would want this, or is it the doctor pushing antibiotics on her?

I don't have to mention that constant antibiotic use for non-bacterial situations can cause all kinds of other problems. It really frustrates me!

April

[Hera]

The other reason they do it is that it is possible for a secondary bacterial infection to occur. Not that I am condoning it, but that's the "logic."

[Happy Mom]

Talk about over-abusing the use of antibiotics. The only problem is, it's not only the "user" that suffers - but the rest of us as well. My father in law always gets antibiotics for the "flu." It drives me nuts. After his bout with the meds, he's gonna have to buy a drum of yogurt to replenish the healthy live cultures, keopectae for the diarrhea, compazine for nausea caused by the antibiotic....the list goes on and on. It's just not worth the trade in health for the false sense that it's going to "speed" the healing process up.