http://www.who.int/m...almedicines/en/ ..and obviously no one is talking about addictive drugs, which are controlled in most countries, including the ones where antibiotics are sold freely.
I don't know how much a visit to a Dr cost in Bulgaria (it is about $100 in the US, plus they often do not prescribe antibiotics without insisting on a test, which is another few hundred $) -- all this just to get the permission to buy a drug. In many countries antibiotics are sold without prescription, and there are no reports coming from those countries about people "developing tolerance".
It's a common misconception that people "develop tolerance" to antibiotics while taking them on their own. All multiple-antibiotics resistant strains of bacteria were actually traced to the hospitals, where antibiotics are always prescribed. And this was mostly in the ICU (intensive care units), where people are routinely pumped with antibiotics (in order to save their lives, where there immune systems are down).
Another common source of multiple-antibiotics resistant bacteria is industrial farming. It was reported that wide-spread area surrounding those farms is heavily contaminated with such bacteria. Often lawn fertilizer is derived from such areas and sold in the cities. Some argue that animal antibiotics are not quite the same as those prescribed to people, but this is not quite true. There are only minor differences. Once an organism becomes tolerant to an antibiotic, it generally becomes tolerant to the whole class of these antibiotcs; and both people and animals are treated with the same classes of drugs.
But this is off topic in this thread...
Can you buy antibiotics freely in Bulgaria? I know you can in Mexico and Russia. Plus in Russia a visit to a Dr is free, so people can always consult a specialist if they don't have confidence in their own choice. That's how it should be, don't you think?
A visit to a doctor in Bulgaria if you are not health - ensured, costs between 10 and 20 euros (depending where you will make the exam). Those, who are health - ensured, if they go to the exact place, will pay only a symbolic tax, of averagely 1,5 euro. I don't know what test are you talking about - if you mean allergy test, we do it here only if you have a history of allergy. The allergology test is not payed from the health ensurance, and costs averagley 40 euros. Another possible test is the antibiogram. I am not sure for its cost, but it can't be more than 100 dollars.
In Bulgaria, there are some "normative rules", which are part of the law, and which require the pharmacies to sell antibiotics only to people with prescriptions. Even though, I have succeeded one time to have antibiotics without a prescription (after having a small quarrel, ensureing them, that I am a medic, and after leaving the change to the pharmacian). There are people, who have succeeded to have antibiotics without prescription even easier. This is not correct, even though.
Well, I think, that antibiotics need to be controlled. I have seen antibiograms of microbes, which are very prone to many kinds of antibiotics. For the penicillin G (the oldest antibiotic), for example, has been used in doses thousands UI. Today, because of the build - up microbes resistence, the doses, that are used now are in millions UI. It is not common today, but, the example is good. So, building a resistance of the microorganisms for the antibiotics do exist. They appear to evolve to comply with the antibiotics environment, that we are offering them. It seems, that really antibiotics must be taken only if there is a need of them. This is why a doctor needs toprescribe them. You are right, that in some countries, they are being sold just like that, and there are industries, that use them without thinking at all, but this is a very big mistake, that may cost the existence of the human kind in its worst case scenario.
