Antibiotics and Painkillers

• Antibiotics, such as penicillin, are drugs developed to cure infections caused by bacteria. Some antibiotics work by destroying the cell wall of the bacteria so that they can't replicate.
• Antibiotics do not affect viruses

  • Antibiotics do not destroy viruses because viruses stay inside host cells and are not living cells.
• Antibiotics are specific

  • Specific antibiotics are prescribed by medical doctors for specific diseases.
  • The use of antibiotics has greatly reduced the number of deaths from infectious bacterial diseases.
• 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.
• Painkillers and other medicines are used to treat the symptoms of disease but do not kill pathogens.
• Antibiotics cannot kill viral pathogens.