This is true, antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infection, not viral.
Don’t antivirals exist though?
It helps with the bacterial infection that I get and my sinuses are BLOODY RAW from sniffling for the last week!
That’s the idea: antibiotics help against bacteria, not against viruses
Yes, but almost every viral infection I’ve ever had…comes with bacterial infection as an additional “feature”
Nah, it’s estimated that about 90% of “sinus infections” in adults are actually viral.
Your doctor just gave up and prescribed you antibiotics because you whined or they don’t care about antibiotic stewardship.
Bonus points if they gave you azithromycin (Zpak,) which does basically nothing for bacterial sinus infections but has slight anti inflammatory properties to enhance that placebo effect for you until the viral infection naturally clears.
Viral infections don’t typically last over the course of several months. I get that there’s a lot of people who want antibiotics for viral things, I don’t take them when I don’t need them.
https://aafa.org/allergies/allergy-symptoms/sinusitis-sinus-infection/
Many viral sinus infections are followed by bacterial infections if they go on long enough.
If you have an infection, totally appropriate. The issue is that a good amount of doctors will prescribe antibiotics just to make it seem like they’re doing something for you. While that effect of being treated will help through the placebo effect, the use of antibiotics when it isn’t necessary reduces the amount of time we collectively have for antibiotics to be effective.
