antibiotic
Sign in to saveAn antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of such infections. They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. A limited number of antibiotics also possess antiprotozoal activity. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses such as the ones which cause the common cold or influenza. Drugs which inhibit growth of viruses are termed antiviral drugs or antivirals. Antibiotics are also not effect
AI overview
An antibiotic is a substance that either kills bacteria or stops them from growing, making it the most widely used type of medication for treating and preventing bacterial infections. However, antibiotics don't work against viruses like those that cause colds or the flu, so they are only effective for bacterial infections.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Drug class.Image
- Staphylococcus aureus (AB Test).jpg
- Drug class.Caption
- Testing the susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus to antibiotics by the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method – antibiotics diffuse from antibiotic-containing disks and inhibit growth of S. aureus, resulting in a zone of inhibition.
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
34 sectionsContents
- Early history
- Etymology
- Usage
- Medical uses
- Routes of administration
- Global consumption
- Side effects
- Interactions
- Birth control pills
- Alcohol
- Pharmacodynamics
- Combination therapy
- Classes
- Production
- Resistance
- Misuse
- History
- Synthetic antibiotics derived from dyes
- Penicillin and other natural antibiotics
- Late 20th century
- Antibiotic pipeline
- <span class="anchor" id="Alternatives"></span> Replenishing the antibiotic pipeline and developing other new therapies
- Natural product-based antibiotic discovery
- Immunoglobulin therapy
- Phage therapy
- Fecal microbiota transplants
- Antisense RNA-based treatments
- CRISPR-Cas9-based treatments
- Reducing the selection pressure for antibiotic resistance
- Vaccines
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of such infections. They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. A limited number of antibiotics also possess antiprotozoal activity. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses such as the ones which cause the common cold or influenza. Drugs which inhibit growth of viruses are termed antiviral drugs or antivirals. Antibiotics are also not effective against fungi. Drugs which inhibit growth of fungi are called antifungal drugs.
Sometimes, the term antibiotic—literally "opposing life", from the Greek roots ἀντι anti, "against" and βίος bios, "life"—is broadly used to refer to any substance used against microbes, but in the usual medical usage, antibiotics (such as penicillin) are those produced naturally (by one microorganism fighting another), whereas non-antibiotic antibacterials (such as sulfonamides and antiseptics) are fully synthetic. However, both classes have the same effect of killing or preventing the growth of microorganisms, and both are included in antimicrobial chemotherapy. "Antibacterials" include bactericides, bacteriostatics, antibacterial soaps, and chemical disinfectants, whereas antibiotics are an important class of antibacterials used more specifically in medicine and sometimes in livestock feed.