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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suggest Treatment For Severe Bacterial Infection In Lungs

Doctor, I wasdiagnosed with a bacterial infection in both my lungs. The Doctor put me on a program to take three different antibiotics for an eleven month time. They are rimafin and two others a total of 7 pills at once for monday-wednesday and fridays. I do not feel comfortable taking some many antibiotics for such a long period of time. He said its initials are MAC Any advise would be appreciated. Thank you
Wed, 21 Aug 2019
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General & Family Physician 's  Response
Hi,

You don't seem to be having the usual bacterial infection. By the duration of time of treatment and the medication Rimafin which is most likely Rifampin, it looks like you have the Mycobacterium infection that takes very long to treat.

MAC stands for Mycobacterium Avium complex for which 11 to 12 months of treatment is needed with usually 2 to 3 different types of antibiotics. Taking all the medication , on time , for the full duration of treatment is very important. Discontinuing in the middle will cause the medication to stop effecting the bacteria which we call as resistance. Thus, it is crucial that you keep taking the medication on time so that it could rid you of this bacterial infection.

With MAC infection, it will be important to know what other problems you also have like diabetes or are you on any other medication for a long period of time, because MAC infection mostly effects people with reduced immunity to infections. Therefore it is important to check for other diseases also going on which needs attention like diabetes etc that reduces immunity.

I hope this answers your questions. In case you have any more questions, feel free to contact us in writing.

Regards,
Dr. Talal Hussain, General & Family Physician
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Suggest Treatment For Severe Bacterial Infection In Lungs

Hi, You don t seem to be having the usual bacterial infection. By the duration of time of treatment and the medication Rimafin which is most likely Rifampin, it looks like you have the Mycobacterium infection that takes very long to treat. MAC stands for Mycobacterium Avium complex for which 11 to 12 months of treatment is needed with usually 2 to 3 different types of antibiotics. Taking all the medication , on time , for the full duration of treatment is very important. Discontinuing in the middle will cause the medication to stop effecting the bacteria which we call as resistance. Thus, it is crucial that you keep taking the medication on time so that it could rid you of this bacterial infection. With MAC infection, it will be important to know what other problems you also have like diabetes or are you on any other medication for a long period of time, because MAC infection mostly effects people with reduced immunity to infections. Therefore it is important to check for other diseases also going on which needs attention like diabetes etc that reduces immunity. I hope this answers your questions. In case you have any more questions, feel free to contact us in writing. Regards, Dr. Talal Hussain, General & Family Physician