Question: Is the subdosis dangerous?

Alena Pance answered on 19 Jun 2020:

Hi Mike, I assume that by subdosis you mean suboptimal dosage of drugs. This is a really improtant issue, particularly regarding infectious diseases. If an infection is treated with doses of medication below the effective concentrations, the infectious organism will not be killed. However, it will be affected by the drug but because it won’t be killed then ti will start to adapt to survive in the presence of the drug and this is one of the main ways that resistance develops. This is why it is really important to finish any course of antibiotics we are given, even if we feel well half way through, just to make sure the bacteria causing the infection is well and fully eliminated. The case of malaria is a very clear example of the effect suboptimal medication can have because in some countries like Venezuela that have big economic problems, medical care is underfunded and neglected so people don’t have the means to getting the drugs they need so the take what they have which might not be enough, or they find ‘pirate’ low quality drugs that are not the full dose and the result is that the disease rate increases dramatically very quickly: https://sangerinstitute.blog/2019/05/23/infectious-diseases-make-a-comeback-in-venezuela-following-healthcare-crisis/