Antibiotics

Keywords

Antibiotics, pathogen, bacterial, effective, resistance, Penicillin, Alexander Fleming, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, macrolides, flouroquinolones, infection.

Introduction

What are antibiotics and what do they do?

An antibiotic is a drug that we take for removal of an infection. But only for specific infections. They work to help remove bacterial infections.

How Does it Work?

When you get the sniffles, and it turns ugly and you get worse, you can go to the doctor, and they may prescribe you some medicine. This medicine will be a non-branded medicine that everyone can take. Here in the UK, it will be an NHS prescription, and we don't pay for them when we need them.

The medicine you get will have been around for quite a while, but the recipe will have been perfected. This medicine is an antibiotic. If you have a bacterial infection (let's use gastroenteritis for example), this can be removed with help from antibiotics.

When you take the medicine, it helps your learning white blood cells (lymphocytes) to create antibodies to help fight off infection. It does this by creating an antibody that supports the immune system on a cellular level.

So, whilst taking antibiotics, the gastroenteritis will [possibly slowly] be rectified and you can go on about your day as normal.

Antibiotic Resistance

There will come a time when we won't be able to use antibiotics. This is because bacteria that we live with now are becoming sneaky little organisms. They are learning to evolve and adapt so that the antibiotics we take don't influence them. This is what we know as being called antibiotic resistance.

Penicillin, the most widely used antibiotic, was discovered by Alexander Fleming. It was discovered way back in 1928, but bacteria have come to know the medicine for almost a century. It was bound to happen that they would evolve and change. This is part of the theory of evolution, discovered by scientists like Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.

Interesting fact: as with a lot of medicines that are active, antibiotics have an expiry date. If the medicine is not taken before this expiry date, they may not be as effective, or can even cause you to get more ill by taking them.

Types of Antibiotic

So, you would think there is just the one type of antibiotic, wouldn't you? Wrong! There are several types:

Penicillin: probably the most well known, it is used to treat a variety of infections, including skin infections, chest infections, and urinary tract infections (UTIs). It was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928.

Cephalosporins: used on a range of infections, as well as some more serious infections such as septicaemia and meningitis.

Aminoglycosides: used mainly in a hospitals only and for more serious infections like septicaemia. They can cause side effects such as hearing loss or kidney damage.

Tetracyclines: commonly used to treat acnes and a skin condition called rosacea, they can be used for other infections too.

Macrolides: the other more common one, these are for people who have an allergy to penicillin - erythromycin is the commonly known one - able to treat infections and particularly lung or chest infections. These can also be used in response to bacteria that have resiliance to penicillin.

Fluoroquinolones: these give off serious side effects and are not routinely used any longer. They were used for a variety of infections.