1. Why do I have to take antibiotics for so long if I feel better already?
It is important to eliminate all of the bacteria that are causing the problem. For some infections, several weeks of treatment are necessary. This is especially important if you have , which requires weeks of antibiotic therapy to cure.
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2. Why do the blood culture results take so long?
The or must grow in the before they can be detected and identified. Usually this happens within a couple of days, but in some cases and with some microorganisms it can take longer. Furthermore, some microorganisms are present in the blood in very small numbers. They must have a sufficient time to reproduce and grow to quantities that can be detected.
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3. Why did my doctor order more blood cultures after the initial cultures were drawn?
Additional blood cultures may be drawn to determine if bacteria present in the culture are persistent in the blood stream (true ). If they are not present in follow-up cultures, then bacteria from the skin may have contaminated the initial cultures. Additional blood cultures may also be drawn if you continue to have signs of but no microorganism is recovered from the first cultures collected.
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