Antibiotic Chart to Guide Acquisition

Bring Your Own Bandages:  Medicines and Supplies to Have on Hand Before Disaster Strikes is now available on Amazon.  Read the reviews and see for yourself.  Available in digital and hard copy.

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on knowledge and understanding you might wish to acquire in advance of a disaster in case no higher care is available.  As long as our society is functioning, you should leave anything more substantial than applying a Band-Aid to the professionals.  No medication, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care. 

I thought this chart might be helpful in considering common conditions for which you will want to have antibiotics and the usual dosages per course of treatment.  I figured it might be a means of determining the numbers of any given antibiotic that you want to have on hand.  THIS IS NOT TO BE INTERPRETED AS A PRESCRIPTION FOR ANY GIVEN MEDICAL CONDITION.  It is only to help you calculate quantities you may wish to acquire for your family.

Condition	First Choice	Second choice	Notes
Biological weapons
Anthrax	Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day/60 days	Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day/60 days
Plague	Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day/10 days	Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day/10-14 days	Moxifloxacin 400 mg/1x per day/10 days
Cholera	Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day/10 days	Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day/10-14 days
Tularemia	Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day/10 days	Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day/10-14 days
Skin infections
Staphylococcus	SMZ-TMP DS 2x per day	Clindamycin 500 mg/3x per day Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day SMZ-TMP DS	(Number of days for treatment will be based on how quickly condition resolves)
Streptococcus	Penicillin	Ampicillin Augmentin Cephalexin Clindamycin	(Number of days for treatment will be based on how quickly condition resolves.  Plan on at least 10 days per incident.)
Cat and dog bites	Augmentin 250-500 mg/3x per day/3-5 days Penicillin 500 mg/4x per day/3-5 days	Amoxicillin 500 mg/3x per day/3-5 days Erythromycin 250-500 mg/3-4x per day/3-5 days	Prophylactic treatment should begin immediately after every cat bite, as most cat bites will cause infection.  Amounts provided here are all for bites that do not show signs of infection.  If a bite has already become infected, treatment with the same antibiotics and dosages lasts 7-10 days.
Cellulitis	SMZ-TMP DS 2x per day Augmentin 875 mg/2x per day	Clindamycin 500 mg/3x per day Cephalexin 1000 mg/2x per day	(Number of days for treatment will be based on how quickly condition resolves.  Plan on at least 10 days per incident.)
Tick bites	Prophylactic use: doxycycline 200 mg once; disease treatment:  100 mg/2x per day/10-14 days
Typhus	Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day/7-10 days
Respiratory tract infections
Pneumonia	IV/IM antibiotics best	Levofloxacin 750 mg/1x per day OR Augmentin 1000 mg/2x per day OR Amoxicillin 1000 mg/3x per day PLUS Azithromycin OR Moxifloxacin 400 mg/4x per day
Aspiration pneumonia	IV/IM antibiotics best	Moxifloxacin 400 mg/4x per day
“Walking” pneumonia	Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day Levofloxacin 750 mg/2x per day	Doxycycline 100 mg/2x per day Erythromycin 400 mg/3x per day
Bronchitis	Azithromycin 500 mg first day, 250 mg per day/7 days	Clarithromycin 500 mg/2x per day SMZ-TMP DS 2x per day
Strep throat	Penicillin Amoxicillin	Clindamycin Azithromycin Clarithromycin	Dosage and duration depend on age and weight of patient
Dental infections	Amoxicillin	Clindamycin
Sinusitis	Augmentin 1000 mg/2x per day/7-10 days	Levofloxacin 750 mg/1x per day/7-10 days
Otitis Media (ear infection)	Amoxicillin Augmentin		Dosage and duration depend on age and weight of patient
Gastrointestinal infections
Giardia	Metronidazole 250 mg/3x per day/5-7 days
Post-antibiotic colitis	Metronidazole 500 mg/3x per day/14 days
Cholera	Azithromycin 1000 mg 1x Doxycycline 300 mg 1x	Erythromycin 500 mg/1x per day/3 days
Traveler’s diarrhea	Levofloxacin 500 mg/1x per day/1-3 days	Azithromycin 500 mg/1x per day/3 days
Salmonella	Levofloxacin 500 mg/1x per day/7-10 days	Azithromycin 500 mg/1x per day/7-10 days
Shigella	Ciprofloxacin 750 mg/2x per day/3 days	Azithromycin 500 mg/1x per day/3 days
Diverticulitis	SMZ-TMP DS OR levofloxacin 750 mg/1x per day/7-10 days PLUS Metronidazole 500 mg/1x per day/7-10 days
Appendicitis	Augmentin 500 mg/3x per day OR SMZ-TMP DS OR Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day PLUS Metronidazole 500 mg/3-4x per day		Continue taking until 3-4 days after symptoms have resolved.
Urinary tract infections
Lower UTI	SMZ-TMP DS 2x per day/7 days	Ciprofloxacin 500 mg/2x per day Levofloxacin 400 mg/1x per day
Upper UTI	IV/IM antibiotics best	IV/IM antibiotics best

As you make your decisions about what to stockpile, consider the following:

• Which of these infections are you and your family members actually susceptible to?  We don’t have problems with sinus infections, so I don’t even look at what’s required for treating those.  Strep throat and ear infections are pretty common in young children, so I’d store a lot more penicillin if I had a young family.   
• Look at the cost per pill.  Doxycycline is ridiculously cheap; if I’ve got a choice between using that or just about anything else, I’ll go with doxy, after discussing it with my doctor, of course. 
• Consider the side effects.  Not only is ciprofloxacin on the more expensive side, it can have some really undesirable side effects.  I stock it because it may be the best choice for some conditions.   
• Remember, you aren’t making the decisions about what to use and when.  You are merely stockpiling these antibiotics for a time of need when a physician can prescribe what is best.  You just want to give the doctor the right tools for the job. 

If the thinking and calculating quantities are more than you want to do, you can go with Dr. Koelker’s simplified list.  It’s posted here, and you can find it in her book, Armageddon Medicine, as well.  Her list does not include several of the antibiotics listed above, most notably levofloxacin and clindamycin, but those two can be covered by other antibiotics.  It’s just that levofloxacin and clindamycin are the first choices in some cases.  

 

11 July 2024  A reader emailed me about including a link to Jase Medical (https://jasemedical.com/), a company I was unaware of when this article originally posted a few years ago.  (As you know, I have other projects this summer and most articles until September will be repeats.)  I have no experience with them but have heard good things.  They are expensive.

  
Links to related posts:
Acquiring Antibiotics
Armageddon Medicine 
Appendicitis
Cholera
Tick-borne Illnesses 
Dog and Cat Bites
Typhus

For further reading:
https://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/pdf/cipro-eui-hcp-H.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/medical-care/doxy-eui-hcp.html
https://www.cdc.gov/plague/resources/Recommended-antibiotics-for-plague_revision-Aug-2015_Final-(00000002).pdf