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Antibiotics: Infections
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Antibiotics are strong medicines that can stop some infections and save lives. But antibiotics can cause more harm than good when they aren't used the right way. You can protect yourself and your family by knowing when you should use antibiotics and when you shouldn't.
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Antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which ... includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections.
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Antibiotics can help you get better if a bacterial infection is responsible for your illness, but they'll have no effect if you have a virus. Taking antibiotics when you don't need them can lead to germs that are antibiotic-resistant — one of the gravest threats to public health worldwide.
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The great number of diverse antibiotics currently available can be classified in different ways, e.g., by their chemical structure, their microbial origin, or their mode of action. They are ... frequently designated by their effective range. Tetracyclines, the most widely used broad-spectrum antibiotics, are effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as against rickettsias and psittacosis-causing organisms (see Gram's stain). Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) is another broad-spectrum antibiotic, effective in the treatment of mild infections of the urinary tract and sinuses. The medium-spectrum antibiotics bacitracin, the erythromycins, penicillin, and the cephalosporins are effective primarily against Gram-positive bacteria, although the streptomycin group is effective against some Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Polymixins are narrow-spectrum antibiotics effective against only a few species of bacteria.
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For severe bacterial infections, antibiotics are usually first given by injection. When the infection is under control, antibiotics can then be taken by mouth. Less severe infections can be treated from the start with oral antibiotics. Antibiotics need to be taken until the infecting organism is eliminated from the body, which may be days after the symptoms disappear. Antibiotics are rarely given for fewer than 5 days (an exception is certain uncomplicated urinary tract infections). Discontinuing treatment too soon can result in a relapse of infection or the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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In the last few years, three new classes of antibiotics have been brought into clinical use. This follows a 40-year hiatus in discovering new classes of antibiotic compounds. These new antibiotics are of the following three classes: cyclic lipopeptides (daptomycin), glycylcyclines (tigecycline), and oxazolidinones (linezolid). Tigecycline is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, while the two others are used for gram-positive infections. These developments show promise as a means to counteract the growing bacterial resistance to existing antibiotics.
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