Another reason to avoid antibiotics

Cold season is here, another season of inconvenient illnesses interfering with trips, holidays, presentations, and birthday parties. Before you wish you could take antibiotics 'just in case' it might cut the illness short, be careful what you wish for.

A small series of patients from Philadelphia, including six young and previously healthy women, contracted serious intestinal infections caused by Clostridia dificile,. These bad boys are bacteria that overgrow after good bacteria are bumped off during antibiotic therapy. Three of these women received just one or two doses of antibiotics, three were pregnant, one had just had a caesarean delivery, and one of them died.

Check out sobering words from an infectious disease specialist tomorrow.