Medicines

• Antibiotics, such as penicillin, are medicines that help to cure bacterial disease by killing infective bacteria inside the body. It is important that specific bacteria should be treated by specific antibiotics.
• The use of antibiotics has greatly reduced deaths from infectious bacterial diseases. However, the emergence of strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics is becoming a serious threat.
• Antibiotics cannot kill viral pathogens.
• Painkillers and other medicines are used to treat the symptoms of disease. They do not kill pathogens.
• Most medicines are mixtures. They are formulations made by mixing the ingredients in carefully measured quantities to ensure that the product has the required properties.
• One or more of the ingredients may be the drug, such as aspirin, but other ingredients make it easier or more pleasant for a patient to take the drug in solution or as a capsule or tablet.