system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do our bodies need to do a "full round" of antibiotics, why can't we stop using them halfway without risk of side effects?
gpt
Generally speaking, it takes the whole round of antibiotics to kill of 100% of the infection. If you stope half way through, you might have only killed 95% of the infection. That remaining 5%, which is resistant but not immune to the antibiotics, could survive the half treatment and come back stronger than ever. The resistant ones would repopulate, leaving you full of an infection that is all resistant to the antibiotics.