Antibiotic Question

K

KyleC767

New member
Hey guys. Really quick question. I did some googling and wasn't able to find one solid answer. I had a little sinus infection about a week and a half ago that the doctor put me on a 5-day Z-Pak for. Cleared it up pretty well. Well then about 3 days after my dosage stopped, my mom started coming down with what turned out to be bronchitis. My question is basically, how long does an antibiotic stay effective in killing things off. She just started taking a course for herself today. It's basically been a little over a week since I stopped my course of them.
 
Antibiotics are for infections and bronchitis is a virus. So, FYI, antibiotics will not help it (unless she developed a lung infection due to it, which would then lead to acute bronchitis).

Antibiotics only work for as long as you take them which is why you are usually put on them for a certain amount of days. Some people believe antibiotic is a cure all and that they can take one Amoxicillan (for example) for just a day and be cured! LOL, I never got that one. So if you are asking what your risk is for bronchitis because of your previous antibiotics, it doesn't matter because it's a virus. So don't let her cough or sneeze on you and use antibacterial hand disinfecting things!
 
AND your zpack will continue to work for an additional 5-7 days after you finish the course of pills. So you continue to improve for the following week after you finish taking the pills. But curly is right. Antibiotics don't work on any old virus that floats around. ;)
 
Thanks for the replies. I assumed as much about not being able to stop viruses. Not sure what she's got in particular. I think it may be what I had, but I was able to stop it before it got to my lungs. I think she waited too long to get it checked out. Not sure. I was mostly just curious as to how long the z pak would be effective after I stopped taking it. If it is in fact a week, then it should've been good until today if in fact it was an infection.
 
Bronchitis is often viral, but is also bacterial. They can test for it if they choose but the typical response is to try antibiotics. The only harm in it is the build up of antibiotic resistance, which for most semi-healthy individuals is not that common.
 
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