In Reply to: ...I don't care... posted by charlz on Friday, 11. March 2005 at 12:37 Bali Time:
Charlz your references to Malaria, etc above are all in relation to vaccines. A vaccine is when you are deliberately given a small amount of a pathogen to cause your body to produce antibodies against that specific pathogen.
Your suggestion of taking a broad spectrum antibiotic is NOT a vaccine, in fact it could very well have the exact opposite effect in that any bacteria that are resident in your gut can and probably will develop an immunity to that antibiotic, rendering it ineffective.
There are definite reasons for not taking an antibiotic without needing it, not the least of which is that they are completely non descriminatory.
Cheers, FB