Why is someone considered no longer contagious after a few days on antibiotics?
In: Biology
This depends a lot on what bacteria we’re talking about.
A single bacterium is not necessarily enough to cause an infection. It will more likely require many thousands. Depending on the disease, you will have more or less of them in your lungs at various stages.
All these criteria are based on studies. In these cases, studies have shown that after a certain period, there won’t be enough of the pathogen (or perhaps any) in your bodily fluids to cause infection in another person.
It’s not a black and white thing, it doesn’t mean everything is gone, it just means you couldn’t possibly get someone else sick, there just aren’t enough bacteria in your mucous. This would usually mean that the majority of them have been killed off, and the infection has dropped to a level that the total number is constantly reducing.
You may still have symptoms (immune reactions aren’t turned on and off instantaneously), but you won’t be a breeding ground anymore.
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