Antibiotics

• What is an antibiotic?


  A substance produced by a microorganism to kill other microorganisms. (e.g. Penicillin from the fungus Penicillium)
• Antibiotics, including penicillin, were originally medicines produced by living organisms, such as fungi. Antibiotics help to cure bacterial disease by killing the infecting bacteria or preventing their growth
• Antibiotics do not kill viruses, because viruses live insides the host's cells and so an antibiotic cannot reach them