Antibiotics

When treating a disease there are two types of medication that an individual can take:
- Medicines that treat the cause of the disease – e.g. antibiotics
- Medicines which treat the symptoms of the disease – e.g. painkillers
Antibiotics, such as penicillin, are medicines that help to cure bacterial disease by killing infective bacteria inside the body
The use of antibiotics has greatly reduced the deaths from infections in the last century
Only certain antibiotics will work on certain diseases, however, so a doctor will prescribe different antibiotics depending on the type of infection
It is important that specific bacteria should be treated by specific antibiotics that are known to work against them
Antibiotics work by inhibiting the processes in the bacterial cells, such as the production of the cell wall
- They affect processes usually only in bacteria so are not harmful to host cells

Penicillin was the first antibiotic to be discovered and is widely used, although resistance is a problem

Antibiotics will not work against viruses, as viruses reproduce inside cells. It is difficult to develop drugs that kill viruses without also damaging the host’s tissues