Two treatments you are likely familiar with are antibiotics and antivirals. If you've ever had an ear infection or strep throat, you've likely been given a course of antibiotics. Perhaps you had the flu and a doctor prescribed you a medication like Tamiflu, that's an antiviral. These treatments provide a way for the body to handle the bacterial or viral infection that occurs.
Antibiotics are medications that destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria.
There are two types of antibiotics:
- A bactericidal antibiotic, such as penicillin, kills the bacteria. These drugs usually interfere with either the formation of the bacterial cell wall or its cell contents.
- A bacteriostatic antibiotic, which stops bacteria from multiplying.
Antiviral drugs work to prevent the virus from multiplying, they do not destroy the virus.
Antibiotic Resistance:
Antibiotics work until bacteria become resistant to them. In a population of bacteria, some are naturally resistant to the antibiotic. As the antibiotic kills bacteria, those that are resistant survive. The bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotic multiply (remember bacteria grow exponentially). Eventually the bacteria population evolves to be resistant to the drug.
One major disease that results from antibiotic resistant is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as, MRSA. MRSA is often transmitted in health care settings, such as hospitals and dialysis centers. It can be extremely difficult to recover from due to the number of antibiotics the bacteria is resistant to.
