Doctors- how do you build up resistance?

On the border of what? If she’s in a tropical area she might have to build up resistance to all the nasties natives have been tolerating since they were born. Otherwise, it’s good hygiene habits (hand washing, etc), plus a healthy dollop of denial (I’m not sick – ACHOO!).

What is she sick with?

It depends on whether she’s getting viruses or bacteria. Viruses you should get immune to that virus after each round. Bacteria….I don’t know if you CAN build up a resistance.

Is she sure it’s not the food or water? Usually that’s the most common cause of sickness overseas.

Well, if she is using antibiotics I would hope it is bacterial.

My next questions is, is she really kicking the original bacteria out, or is she actually never getting rid of it fully?

I’m thinking the OP means digestive troubles and the friend is in MX?

Of course you can build up resistance to bacterial infections. That’s why people are vaccinated against TB For example.

Tb vaccination doesn’t work. We do boulder up antibodies to strep which help fight off an active infection (opsinization)

Here’s what Wiki says about the TB vaccination. “The only currently available vaccine as of 2011 is bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) which, while it is effective against disseminated disease in childhood, confers inconsistent protection against contracting pulmonary TB.[67] Nevertheless, it is the most widely used vaccine worldwide, with more than 90% of all children being vaccinated.[7] However, the immunity it induces decreases after about ten years.[7] As tuberculosis is uncommon in most of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, BCG is only administered to people at high risk.[68][69][70] Part of the reasoning arguing against the use of the vaccine is that it makes the tuberculin skin test falsely positive, and therefore, of no use in screening.[70] A number of new vaccines are currently in development.[7]”

Border of US/ Mexico.

She’s had everything from strep to pink eye, to lice. Fifty days of antibiotics because she kept getting one thing after another.

Everything you named you can easily get north and south of the border. She needs to make sure she gets enough sleep, check her iron, stop touching her face, and wear her hair back in braids and hope for the best.

I’m not a doctor but I worked in a child care center in the infants to toddlers and I use to catch everything they had for 2 years. Everyone told me my immune system would build up after 1 year. Lies! Anyway, it wasn’t till I went away on vacation in Florida and had bronchitis for the 6th time did a doctor finally give me the medicine I needed. He said that by working while my immune system was still weak and compromised that I made it easier to keep getting reinfected. He gave me some antibiotic that he said was usually used with phneumonia that should do the trick. In like 2 days I felt like a new person. After taking it for 10 days I felt 10 years younger. I don’t even really remember getting a slight cold for about 3 years after that.

She may need a good round of antibiotics and then some proper bed rest and nutrition to get back to being properly healthy. BTW, if all she is getting is that weak 5 day antibiotics (that was what I was given) than it may not be strong enough. That stuff never did anything for me. I would go back to the doctor saying that I still felt weak and they would always chalk it up to the bronchitis and said the antibiotics did it’s thing and I need to wait 6 weeks before seeing any real results. Before the six weeks were up, I would be down with something else. Felt like a truck ran over me for 2 years.

@Pandora Was the med that finally cured it Levaquin? And, had they been giving you zithromax? I’m just curious, because I find that Zithromax often does not work and doctors and patients both seem to love that drug. And, they take ot again and again when it isn’t working.

The mega antibiotic idea won’t work for the OP. She has had a variety of infections.

@Pandora bacterial infections (things susceptible to antibiotics) don’t typically linger for two years. They either go away or kill you. Even so, I don’t have a good answer to what your symptoms were or how the antibiotics made you better.

@drhat77 I’ve had an infection for 20 years. Augmentin is my magical wonder drug.

@JLeslie chronic bacterial infections do not happen “just cuz”, there is almost always something underlying that allows them to set up shop. Unless the underlying condition is treated, the bacteria will just return, a little more resistant next time.

@JLeslie I don’t remember. It was over 10 years ago. I just remember it was 1 tiny small jell pill that I took once a day for 10 days. It cost $100 dollars at the time.

@drhat77 I don’t think I continually had bronchitis but rather I continued to easily be re-infected with it. I do think my body fought it off as best it could but it needed something that would wipe it completely from my body. I never really felt fully recovered from the bronchitis. It may have left my body but it was wiping me out.

@drhat77 Since rarebear has abandoned us for a bit, may I ask what if you’re a GP or ?

i’m an Emergency Physician.

@drhat77 I would love to have the underlying cause discovered. Think about GYN onfections like Chlamydia and stomach infections like H. Pylori and another example is Lymes disease. Plenty of people had those infections, some symptomatic, so not, some more severe symtpoms than other, and until they were discovered or decided to be pathogenic they went untreated for years. I have had other doctors say a chronic infection will eventually kill you, and it just isn’t true from where I sit, it depends on the infection.

Ugh, wish I could edit.

Regarding head lice, my sister in law lived in England for several years. It seems everyone had it, all the time. A friend of hers told her to pour a little Tea Tree Oil in a bottle of hair conditioner and applying that once a week (let it sit for a few minutes or so before washing it out) kept her kids lice free.

It’s a dandy and inexpensive remedy. We’ve also used it as a flea shampoo on our dog, and it kills other critters as well. Sometimes I use it straight if it’s a small spot and I want to be quick about it.

@snowberry Great idea!!

Well, it depends. First of all you have to decide whether she’s actually really sicker, or if it’s just confirmation bias. If she really is, and it’s viral, chances are that she may develop resistance. But my recommendation is to keep a bottle of Purel or something on her desk and use it obsessively, as well as wiping off the phone and keyboards of the computer. I keep a small bottle of alcohol hand gel around my neck and I go through a bottle every two or three days.

I know when I moved to the east coast it seemed I was sick with colds and upper respiratory infections frequently for the first 2 years. I lived out there for 15 years, when I moved back I had the same adaptation period. I didn’t experience lice, but that may be due to bug-bombing every apartment I lived in, taking showers everyday for work, weekly washing the linens and cleaning the apartment. I worry that I’ll experience lice and that just bugs me. Not enough to be as religious about house-cleaning as I was then.

she really kicking the original bacteria out, or is she actually never getting rid of it fully?