Can someone who has second degree burns take TETRACYCLINE (antibiotic) to avoid infection?

3 Comments

1. Ruth says:

   February 28, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   Tetracycline would not be the right antibiotic to treat skin infections. It would be best that you have your Doc check out your burn. Is it infected?? Any fever,chills,or sweats?? Any weeping ( fluid like oozing) from the area??Any odor?? Is it swollen ?? Has the burn been healing at all ?? I ask these questions because they relate to signs and symptoms of an infection. The best advice is to have the burn evaluated by a medical professional so that you can be prescribed the correct antibiotic. I hope that this helps.
2. deltaqueen says:

   February 28, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   To prevent it maybe, if infection is already present it needs to been seen and evaluated first.
3. Dayna W says:

   February 28, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   I suppose you could take it, in Europe it is still used to prevent small, localised infections, like you describe, or infection in the mouth, at the gum level. (dose would be an initial "shock dose" of two gel capsules, then one every 6 hrs. But that’s only if infection is NOT present yet, or very little ! Reminder : here in the US, tetracycline is no loger as popular as it once was, due to potential side effects, sensitivity and the development of wide-spectrum antibiotics. So it wouln’t be my first choice, (unless I was in Europe), but you could use it, I suppose.