Opportunistic infections have always been a major killer, and made a roaring comeback in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. People don't die of AIDS itself, or from some other syndromes; they die from the opportunistic infections these allow to flourish.

Not so long ago, our government did maintain rapidly deployable pharmaceutical stockpiles, including antibiotics. However, there has been much political tinkering, blundering and loss of readiness of late, in federal programs designed for disaster response and mitigation, including disease outbreaks or bio-terrorism. Several years ago, the system was in pretty good shape, and I participated in an exercise ("Bioshield") to practice receiving one of the stockpiles and distributing them to hospitals, county health clinics, etc. It went very well. Today? Who knows?

As for stockpiling antibiotics individually, that's kind of iffy, in my personal opinion. You gotta match the drug wid' da' bug. If you screw up when dealing with the really nasty cooties, you might make yourself sicker in the long run. That being said, I do stockpile myself, with a doctor's Rx. But I have specific reasons for doing so. I have a history ear infections, and I get pneumonia rather easily now, thanks to "Nine One One Lung," even though I was one of the few to wear a respirator in the thick of it. I also do long distance, off-trail, solo backpacking. My doctors know me personally, know that I am a paramedic, and trust me to not do anything too terribly stupid before I check in with them. Others here can give far better, more expertly informed advice than I can. But please don't "hold back" any pills from current antibiotic Rx's, even if you're already feeling better. It is very important that you complete the entire prescribed course of treatment.

The real key here is prevention. That means good sanitation and personal and public health pratices, and maintaining as healthy of an immune system as you can.

Jeff