3.1.8 Antibiotics & Painkillers

• A _________ is a drug that is used to prevent, treat or relieve the symptoms of disease.

  Medication.
• Do painkillers help to cure an underlying disease?

  No.
• Which type of drug is used to relieve the symptoms of disease?

  Painkillers - they reduce the feeling of pain, which is only a symptom of disease. They don't help to treat the underlying problem.
• What are some examples of painkillers?

  Paracetamol, aspirin, ibuprofen.
• What measures could help to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance?

  Patients taking antibiotics for the full prescribed course and doctors only prescribing antibiotics for serious bacterial infections.
• Which type of organism can antibiotics kill?

  Bacteria.
• How do antibiotics help to cure bacterial infections?

  They directly kill bacterial cells.
• True or false? Different antibiotics are effective against different strains of bacteria.

  True.
• Occasionally, bacteria can evolve so that antibiotics no longer kill them. In these cases we say that the bacteria has developed…?

  Antibiotic resistance.
• What is one example of an antibiotic?

  Penicillin.
• Do cold remedies cure colds?

  No.
• It is difficult to develop drugs that kill viruses without damaging what?

  The body’s tissues.
• What does bactericidal mean?

  Kills bacteria.
• What does bacteriostatic mean?

  Bacteriostatic means inhibiting the growth or reproduction of bacteria.
• How does genetic mutation cause drug resistance?

  1. Non-resistant bacteria exist.
  2. Bacteria multiply and a few will mutate.
  3. Some mutations make the bacterium drug resistant.
  4. In the presence of drugs, resistant bacteria survive.
  5. Drug resistant bacteria multiply and thrive.
• What are antivirals?

  Medications that inhibit the growth and replication of viruses.
• What are antiseptics?

  Products that kill pathogens on a surface.