6.2 antibiotics and painkillers

• antibiotics kill bacteria in the body. They destroy the bacteria without damaging the body cells.
• antibiotics cannot be used to treat viral diseases.
• antibiotics can kill a variety or a specific bacteria.
• viruses are difficult to kill because they reproduce inside of the body so any treatment for viral infections could also damage the body cells.
• painkillers and some other drugs treat the symptoms of a disease but do not kill the pathogen.
• Your immune system will usually overcome viral pathogens.
• some strains of bacteria have evolved to become resistant to antibiotics.