Administered topically, orally or intravenously, antibiotics are prescribed as a course of treatment for a range of illnesses, including bacterial conjunctivitis, sinusitis, external and middle ear infections, streptococcus throat infection, traveller’s diarrhoea, urinary tract infection, bacterial skin infections and pustular acne.

Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, as they don’t have any effect on viral infections, yet over 31 percent of antibiotic prescriptions were for colds or sore throats.

Never try to get antibiotics at the pharmacy. Your general practitioner (GP) should be the only one prescribing them to you, as he would know if you need them.

When you stop a course of antibiotics prematurely, some bacteria may survive that may develop mechanisms to protect themselves from the antibiotics they have been exposed to, only to return as ever more resilient and drug-resistant bugs.

Dr Wong Wei Mon, deputy medical director of Raffles Medical warns that using antibiotics inappropriately can breed antibiotic-resistant bugs.  Treatment should be initiated by a doctor, and the patient should take the prescribed dosage at appropriate times, not skip doses and always finishing a course of treatment, even if you feel better.

Dr Christina Low, medical director of Lifescan Medical Centre (Paragon branch) says that finishing the course reduces the likelihood that there will be any bacteria left in your body that could potentially become resistant to antibiotics.

The antibiotics that work for a urinary tract infection aren’t the same as the ones that will fight your strep throat. The “broad-spectrum” antibiotics used to fight infections in hospitals aren’t the same as the very specific antibiotics your doctor may prescribe to treat a bacterial ear infection.

And you should never save your antibiotics for later or use someone else’s prescription. That’s a bad idea. Different antibiotics treat different types of bacterial infections. You can’t just assume that your leftover medication will work. And, again, taking the wrong medicine when it won’t help means you risk side effects and future drug resistance.

Most antibiotics don’t cause problems if they’re used properly and serious side effects are rare. Common side effects include being sick, feeling sick, bloating and indigestion and diarrhoea.