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(MAC/MAI) Mycobacterium Avium Complex Pulmonary Disease: Join us
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Apr 14 3:02pm | Replies (9325)Comment receiving replies
I have started coughing a lot and expelling a lot of mucus. Mornings are awful. Continue to nebulize. I haven't taken the antibiotics currently recommended by my doctor. Wish he would try steriod and short course of antibiotics.(Which ones did you use?) But he will only use the recommended dosages. At my age, I just want to manage this disease. Have you heard of anyone being cured longtime?
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Steroids are a bad idea when you have a known infection because they suppress your body's immune response.
As for a short course of antibiotics, MAC & NTM infections are "slow to grow and slow to go". The problem with a short course of treatment is that it only masks the infection, which soon returns. Repeated treatment like this just means only the strongest of the bacteria survive to attack again. This leads to antibiotic resistance, requiring more potent drugs with even worse side effects to knock it down the next times. The 3 drug, long term regimen was developed exactly to fight the drug resistance of Mycobacteria.