Taking medicine to prevent COVID-19, taking medicine as soon as you have a fever, increasing the dosage at will... These 5 wrong behaviors are all very dangerous!

With the continuous adjustment of epidemic prevention and control measures, the probability of "positive" infection in the near future is also relatively high.

For most people, the current Omicron variant causes upper respiratory tract infections, and is suitable for home isolation and self-medication.

In the process of taking medicine at home, it is particularly important to master the relevant knowledge of rational use of medicines.

If drugs are not used reasonably and correctly, it is very likely to cause problems with medication safety, and in severe cases may even cause irreversible health damage.

Today I’m going to talk to you about the 5 common incorrect ways of taking medication during the epidemic.

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01

Taking medicine indiscriminately to prevent infection

The new coronavirus is highly contagious, so of course we must take precautions.

But in addition to wearing masks, washing hands frequently, ventilating the home frequently, and maintaining social distance to prevent infection, some friends also like to take medicine to prevent the new coronavirus.

However, there is currently no drug that can clearly reduce the chance of COVID-19 infection.

Whether it is the Chinese patent medicine that is popular online or some other cold medicines, it is impossible to prevent infection by taking the medicine in advance.

Therefore, indiscriminate use of therapeutic drugs to prevent infection when there is no infection itself will cause a "drug overdose" problem where drugs are used inappropriately, which is worthy of our vigilance.

Another example of misuse of medication to prevent infection is the use of various vitamin supplements.

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Vitamin C in particular has been sold out recently. Adequate vitamin C in the body does help to ensure a good immune system. However, taking large doses of vitamin C out of fear of infection will not bring more disease prevention effects, but may lead to the risk of overdose.

For vitamin C, the Chinese Nutrition Society recommends a daily intake of 100 mg, but many dietary supplements contain 1000 mg of vitamin C, which is 10 times the recommended daily intake.

Although vitamin C is water-soluble, excess intake can generally be excreted through urine. However, long-term excessive supplementation of vitamin C may bring risks such as urinary stones, increased uric acid and gout, which is really unnecessary.

If you want to prevent infection, instead of taking large amounts of drugs or nutrient supplements that have no clear preventive effect, it is better to maintain a healthy diet, moderate exercise, and good sleep while taking good personal protection measures.

Maintaining your own immunity is the real "medicine" to prevent infection.

02

Panic medication when symptoms occur

After being infected with Omicron, you may experience a variety of uncomfortable symptoms such as fever, body aches, sore throat, cough, etc.

This situation is more likely to cause panic, because the risk of drug overdose caused by panic medication is more common.

Taking antipyretic drugs as an example, many friends start to worry and get scared when they find their body temperature exceeds 37.5℃, and start taking medicine without waiting for their temperature to rise further.

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Originally, taking antipyretics at regular doses, 3 to 4 times a day, can control the fever problem.

Because of fear, I not only increased the dosage, but also shortened the interval between medications, taking it five or six times a day.

It is not uncommon for the superposition of drug doses to lead to overdose and damage to liver and kidney function.

I still want to remind everyone not to panic even if you experience symptoms related to infection.

If the symptoms are mild, you may want to monitor your health first, get more rest, drink plenty of water, and only use medication when symptoms that require medication appear.

Before taking the medicine, you should read the instructions carefully to fully understand the drug ingredients, usage and dosage, number of times per day, precautions, etc. Then use the medicine reasonably according to the specifications and dosage of the medicine. Do not use the medicine "hard" because of a hurry, which may lead to excessive dosage and bring safety risks.

03

The more types of medicine you take, the better the effect?

Another situation that should be paid more attention to is that some friends, after the onset of symptoms, in order to "get better quickly", take various drugs together, thinking that the more types of drugs they take, the faster they will get better. The risk of drug overdose caused by this idea should not be ignored.

The more types of medication you take, the faster you will get better. Many drugs have overlapping risks.

For example, single acetaminophen has a good antipyretic effect, and some compound cold medicines, such as acetaminophen and chlorphenamine capsules, Sanjiu Cold Relief, Baijiahei, compound acetaminophen and amantadine tablets, also contain acetaminophen.

If you take acetaminophen and many of these compound cold medicines together in order to reduce fever quickly, there may be a risk of drug overdose and even drug-induced liver failure.

Some people also like to use different kinds of medicine alternately. When they have a fever, they take ibuprofen the first time and acetaminophen the second time, thinking that this alternating method of taking medicine is safer.

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But in fact, when taking one drug can already have a good antipyretic effect, alternating use will not help relieve symptoms faster. It may also bring about the risk of overlapping effects of different drugs due to differences in drug metabolism time.

In addition to Western medicine, it is not recommended to use Chinese medicine in a superimposed and indiscriminate manner.

When it comes to traditional Chinese medicine, we should pay more attention to the principle of treating symptoms based on syndrome differentiation and apply it under reasonable syndrome differentiation. We should also follow the principle of "few but good" and not take several kinds at once.

In short, regardless of whether there are interactions between drugs or whether they overlap with each other, this way of using drugs may also increase the risk of medication safety due to the overlapping of medicinal ingredients and efficacy.

04

Taking antibiotics after infection?

Recently, I have seen many people sharing their experiences of being infected with the new coronavirus, including many sharing of medication experiences.

A very common misunderstanding in medication is that when one finds out that he or she is positive for infection, he or she immediately takes antibiotics such as cephalosporin and azithromycin.

These drugs are all antibiotics, and their corresponding indications are infectious diseases caused by various pathogenic bacteria.

Antibiotics have no antiviral effect on viral infections, whether it is the new coronavirus or other viruses.

Some friends use antibiotics as a specific medicine for treating "sore throat" and "cough".

In fact, the role of antibiotics is to relieve related symptoms in the process of treating various sensitive bacterial infections, rather than directly relieving these uncomfortable symptoms.

Therefore, whether a positive infection is discovered or symptoms such as sore throat and cough appear after infection, it is generally not necessary to use antibiotics. Antibiotics are only necessary when a viral infection leads to complications of bacterial infection.

05

Children's infection abuse medication

Children are the treasures of every family. When children are sick, parents are often more anxious than when they themselves are sick.

Drug abuse and overdose can easily occur under this "anxious" mentality.

In fact, the problems mentioned above, such as hastily increasing dosages, shortening medication intervals, and using multiple drugs simultaneously, should be avoided in children's medication.

Children's medicines generally have special dosage forms and dosages based on weight and age. When using them, you should pay attention to choosing suspensions, granules, and other dosage forms that are more suitable for children.

At the same time, you should also pay more attention to reading the instructions carefully and take the medicine strictly according to the recommended dosage and frequency.

Now in some places, many medicines are temporarily out of stock. Some parents do not have children's medicines at home. Therefore, when their children are infected with a virus and have a fever, they give them adult medicines. If the medicine is suitable for children, such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, etc., it can also be considered as a temporary stopgap measure.

However, it should be emphasized that attention should be paid to choosing a reasonable dosage based on the child's actual age and weight, and adult dosages should not be directly used for children.

One point that needs to be reminded again is that do not be too anxious when children have symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, etc. Antibiotics should not be abused in children unless there is a bacterial infection.

In fact, in many cases, the main reason for the abuse of drugs and drug overdose is the imbalance of mentality and lack of knowledge about medication. Regarding the safety of self-medication at home after infection with Omicron, everyone must understand the following two points:

1. The onset, development and recovery of a disease all require a process.

Omicron infection usually takes 7 to 10 days to completely resolve. During this course of the disease, home medication is mainly to relieve symptoms. Do not use medication indiscriminately because of anxiety.

2. The use of drugs should be combined with the dosage specifications of the drugs, the actual situation of the users and the precautions for taking the drugs, and the reasonable types and dosages of drugs should be selected.

If there is a prescription, strictly follow the prescription; if there is no prescription, follow the symptomatic application and the principle of "less but better" medication, and strictly abide by the usage and dosage in the instructions, so as to better ensure the safety of medication.

Author | Li Jin, Deputy Director Pharmacist, Deputy Head of the Youth Studies Group of the Medical Committee of the China Science Writers Association

Review | Liu Guiyang, Chief Pharmacist, Fourth Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

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