ANTIBIOTICS · Antibiotics (or antibacterials) are chemical compounds that kill bacteria or slow their growth. They are used as medicine to treat diseases caused by bacteria.

ANTIBIOTICS

Antibiotics (or antibacterials) are

chemical compounds that kill bacteria

or slow their growth.

They are used as medicine to treat

diseases caused by bacteria.

Antibiotics can not be used to treat

viruses.

HistoryPenicillin, the first natural antibiotic, was

discovered by  Alexander Fleming  in 1928.

Alexander Fleming, a

Scottish  bacteriologist, was

culturing staphylococcus.

After a two-week vacation he

went back to work at the St

Mary’s Hospital in London

and he noticed that one of his cultures was

contaminated by a mould which killed the

bacteria growing around it.

He isolated the mould and showed that it

released a substance that inhibited

bacterial growth.

Fleming identified the mould that had

contaminated his culture plates as being

from the  Penicillium  genus, and therefore

named the substance it released

“penicillin”.

From 1938 Howard Florey,

Ernst Chain and their

colleagues at Oxford

University worked to

produce a pure form of

penicillin.

Howard Florey

However, the substance was unstable

and difficult to produce in pure form.

In 1942 they succeeded in

producing an injectable

form of penicillin. Just in

time to help soldiers

wounded in World War II.

Penicillin helped reduce the

number of deaths and

amputations of troops

during World War II.

Fleming, Chain and Florey received

the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945

Sir Alexander Fleming receives the Nobel Prize from King Gustaf V of Sweden on 10 December 1945. Behind Fleming stands Nobel Laureate Ernst B. Chain.

In 1946 Dorothy

Hodgkin determined

the structure of

penicillin.

She received the

Nobel Prize in

Chemistry in 1964.

Use

Certain bacteria are only affected by specific

types of antibiotics. Antibiotics fight infection

caused by bacteria.

Patients might need different types or different

amounts of antibiotics depending on what

bacteria is causing their health problems.

Because of this, antibiotics should always be

used under the supervision of a medical doctor.

The doctor can also watch for side effects and

change the patient's treatment when necessary.

Antibiotics are very useful when your body is

infected by a bacteria.

Antibiotics don't kill viruses, so they are

useless against a viral infection.

A doctor must determine if a patient's infection

is of viral or bacterial origin before taking

antibiotics.

Resistance

Antibiotics can be the most effective way of

treating bacterial infections.

When exposed to antibiotics, most bacteria die

quickly, but some bacteria can have mutations.

These bacteria then multiply and make a large

colony which is less affected by the antibiotic.

Part of this problem is caused by the over-use

and misuse of antibiotics. If someone is sick

with a virus, antibiotics will not affect the

virus.

The other problem is that many people do not

use antibiotics correctly.

People often stop taking the medicine when

they start feeling better.

But antibiotics don't kill all of the bad bacteria

at once. Bacteria which are more resistant do

not die immediately.

When someone stops taking the antibiotic too

quickly, these resistant bacteria can reproduce

and survive.