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Antibiotics: Infections
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For severe bacterial infections, antibiotics are usually are given by injection first (typically intravenously). When the infection is under control, antibiotics can be taken orally. Antibiotics must be taken until the infecting organisms is eliminated from the body, which may be days after the symptoms disappear. Thus, stopping treatment too soon may result in a relapse or may encourage the development of resistant bacteria. For this reason, the antibioticis usually taken for several days after all evidence of the infection is gone.
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Antibiotics are a class of drugs that treat bacterial infections by stopping growth of bacteria or killing the bacteria directly. It's important to remember that antibiotics are ineffective in treating infections causes by viruses, which include the majority of colds, sore throats (with the exception of streptococcus-induced, or so-called "strep throat"), coughs, and flu-like illnesses.
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CollaRx is Innocoll's lead technology platform for the site specific, local delivery of a wide variety of drugs with particular emphasis on antibiotics, anesthetics, anti-cancer agents and tissue regeneration proteins and peptides. The CollaRx technology forms the basis of Innocoll's lead product, Gentamicin Surgical Implant, a biodegradable leave-behind implant indicated for the treatment and prevention of surgical site infection in both hard and soft tissue. This product is already approved in 49 countries and is in phase 3 development in the US. Other CollaRx sponge products under clinical development by Innocoll include a CollaRx Bupivacaine Implant for the management of post-operative pain and a topically-applied CollaRx Gentamicin Sponge for the treatment and prevention of diabetic foot infections. Innocoll's CollaRx membrane technology forms the basis of Innocoll's CollaGUARD(TM) advanced wound care product, which is approved as medical device in the EU and US.
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In addition to treating existing infections, antibiotics are sometimes used to prevent infections (prophylaxis). Antibiotics may be used to prevent meningitis in people who have been exposed to someone with meningitis. Some people with abnormal or artificial heart valves take antibiotics before dental and surgical procedures to prevent bacteria from infecting the damaged valves. Prophylactic antibiotics may ... be given to people who have a weakened immune system, such as people with leukemia, people receiving chemotherapy for cancer, or people with AIDS. People undergoing surgery that has a high risk of introducing infection (such as major orthopedic or intestinal surgery) may also be given antibiotics. To be effective, and to avoid the development of resistance in bacteria, prophylactic antibiotic therapy is used for only a short time.
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The overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics has led to antibiotic resistance. Bacteria that were once susceptible to antibiotics have developed ways to survive the drugs that were meant to kill or weaken them. This is ... known as antibacterial resistance or drug resistance. Some diseases such as tuberculosis, gonorrhoea and childhood bacterial ear infections, that were once easily treated with antibiotics are now again becoming difficult to treat as bacteria have become resistant to these drugs. About 70% of bacteria that cause infections in hospitals are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics most commonly used to treat infections. Methicillin (meticillin) resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a particular problem for patients with skin diseases, ulcers and surgical wounds.
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Antibiotics are medicinal products that have an anti-bacterial effect - they either kill bacteria in the system or keep them from reproducing, allowing the infected body to heal by producing its own defenses and overcome the infection. When antibiotics were isolated in the mid-twentieth century, they were widely hailed as 'wonder drugs' and indeed, formerly life-threatening infections could now be easily cured within a few days.
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