A few months back I had a nasty ear infection. I went to the doc and he prescribed me an ear drop antibiotic. I used it for as long as he told me to, but still had some left over so I put it back in the medicine cabinet.
Yesterday, I was kind of cleaning things up, and noticed my ear drops. I took a look at the bottle and it said on it, “Cipro Antibiotic”
From the Anthrax scares of a year or so ago, I remembered that antibiotic was in the news quite a bit.
Is it the same stuff?
If Terrorists decided to plant anthrax in my visa bill, would it help me in the slightest?
<disclaimer - of course a person would call emergency services at once, but I am curious>
Sorry Bernse but I highly doubt the amount of Cipro in your ear drops would even touch the amount of cipro needed to rid you of Anthrax… IANAD - but I seem to remember, it taking massive doses of cipro to help with anthrax…
IANAD, but it seems like ear-drops would be a topical application of antibiotics, meant to kill bacteria on the inner surfaces of your ear. What you’d need for anthrax would be an antibiotic to be taken internally, so that you could reach high levels of the stuff in your bloodstream, which would deliver it to all parts of your body.
Okay, it’s time to put on my biologist hat. Throw that stuff away right now. It used to have ciprofloxacin (cipro) in it. Now it has some ciprofloxacin and unknown breakdown products in it. In the lab, we routinely pitch antibiotic solutions that are more than a month old. What do they do at the pharmacy? Well, at the pharmacy, all those antibiotic drops, liquids, etc. are in powder form. The pills are already dry. Dry keeps fairly well, if stored properly. The conditions in the majority of medicine cabinets do not, under any circumstances, qualify as “properly”. Indeed, when I have antibiotic medications from a doctor, the LAST place I would store them would be in the bathroom. Humidity and heat are enemies of antibiotics. Most of us bathe or shower regularly, with pretty warm water. That’ means that bathrooms tend to get warm and humid. That being said, some antibiotics are okay in the bathroom, I’m just picky. Ask your pharmacist about storage. Dispose of unused antibiotics.
They might, but you’d have to be pretty careful. No drops would protect your ears from the strains of “Caught in a Mosh” or “I am the Law” cranked up to 11 on a good stereo.
