I'm from the Netherlands and once visited our Brazil office.
One of my colleagues there seemed to be having a pretty bad cold so he exited our meeting. One hour later he was back, said he took antibiotics, and felt fine now.
My jaw dropped. Dutch doctors are the opposite, as expats commonly complain about. Our first method of treatment (for various symptoms) is to send you back home and sit it out for a few days. Or just take some aspirins.
The idea being that your body will heal itself over various ills, and that this is the preferred way.
My mind was also blown when I heard that in many countries, people have medical cabinets at home. It being common that the typical non-senior adult has a stock with a wide array of medicines.
I was raised on zero medicines, unless there's something critically wrong. Even taking an aspirin makes you a bit of a wimp.
The main reason why Dutch doctors don't prescribe antibiotics for colds is probably because colds are viral infections, not bacterial, so the antibiotics don't do anything. There's very little you can do for most colds apart from supportive treatment (pain meds, antipyretics, decongestants) and rest.
My partner is a GP (French originally) and when she discussed antibiotics being used in France it was quite eye-opening. Most of the antibiotics prescribed in Sweden have not been in use for years in France because there's too much resistance already. On the other hand many of the antibiotics that she considered really basic were considered "super strong", rarely used in Sweden, e.g. Augmentin.
Yeah, but then again, people will argue that in theory a virus infection could cause a co-infection with bacteria. That's the line I often hear when people justify taking antibiotics for a cold.
It's probably true for some rare cases, though on average very likely doing more harm than good.
My partner is a GP and it is very common for patients to come in and, rather than describing symptoms, will ask directly for antibiotics. They can be quite pushy when she says no, so I imagine some doctors take the path of least resistance and just prescribe them.
As an Aussie I've had the odd amusing chats with my GP on this topic. His response it usually a flat "antibiotics fix a problem which you don't have. Right now they will most likely make you worse by destroying bacteria which are helping you. Do you want to get worse?".
One of my colleagues there seemed to be having a pretty bad cold so he exited our meeting. One hour later he was back, said he took antibiotics, and felt fine now.
My jaw dropped. Dutch doctors are the opposite, as expats commonly complain about. Our first method of treatment (for various symptoms) is to send you back home and sit it out for a few days. Or just take some aspirins.
The idea being that your body will heal itself over various ills, and that this is the preferred way.
My mind was also blown when I heard that in many countries, people have medical cabinets at home. It being common that the typical non-senior adult has a stock with a wide array of medicines.
I was raised on zero medicines, unless there's something critically wrong. Even taking an aspirin makes you a bit of a wimp.
Cultural differences I guess.