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 They say that westerners are the picture of the future and Asians are the past.

In the medical field, the United States and European countries took aggressive researches in response to famous and not so famous, common and not so common diseases. On the other hand, most (if not all) Asian countries are more on the classical side. They prefer to perform once an effective method in curing an ailment, especially, those that is in conjunction with their beliefs and traditions.

One of the most common misconceptions is on the drug use, most of the time falls on abuse. This phenomenon is of no exemption, not even the first world countries are immune from this plague. The greatest doctor cannot cure all patients that enter his clinic and have the prescription; it is not because of the order itself, but the manner of obeying it.

Antibiotics are used to fight infections. They were designed to combat microorganisms in various ways. They were prescribed according to the physician’s knowledge on the disease process and the assessment of the patient. The doctor then tries to resolve the problem through his “sword” (medicine) and “shield” (knowledge) with all his might. The patient’s expected answer on this is “yes” as he/she is still on the former’s vision.

Most of the time, an antibiotic treatment course will take seven (7) long days, with two (2) to three (3) takes a day. It comes in single type or with other types of antibiotics or medicines. The first three (3) days are sometimes misinterpreted as a failure because symptoms are as before the medication was/were initiated. Some patients continue to take the drug/s hoping that it would work as discussed by the specialist; some would stop and consult another doctor. Normally, symptoms started to subside midway of the course. Only a few patients religiously take their pills until the set date of termination and have a follow-up check-up.

Laymen often have the misconception of being cured once they are of no symptoms already. Most of them stop taking antibiotics before their due date. Some of the recorded reasons for this action are financial (savings from buying all prescribed), belief on taking antibiotics further endangers them, and others.

This phenomenon is common among the third world countries, although there are reported incidences also among the developed countries. This is supported by a report from the Asian Network for Surveillance of Resistant Pathogens, revealing that many Asian counties have increased prevalence rate on penicillin and macrolide resistance. Also, the Singapore General Hospital had inclined vancomycin-resistant cases.

Antibacterials are taught to combat bacteria, what was not taught is that is that it leaves a minute portion of them to survive and develop resistance to that same antibiotic. These will multiply in minutes and pass the resistant gene to their daughters. This simply means that an affected individual has lesser chance of being cured the second time around with the same antibiotic with the same disease if he/she did not totally eradicated the pathogens.

It is not the physician’s ability to explain what the medication is for, neither the dosage that he had prescribed that made it difficult to stop the disease, but, the patient’s behaviour towards the medication regimen. This is the single most vital part of a physician-patient-disease interaction. Fidelity among patients is always of major concern.

Faith on the specialists should always be taken on, for they evolved not to make everyone a subject of trial-and-error, but to preserve humanity. They come to us not as professionals through experience, but by science.

“Trust the prescription and prognosis is better”

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