Micro Fact: Antibiotics & Viruses

Posted by Tami Port Jul 2, 2008

Antibiotics and Bacteria

If you go to the doctor with a viral infection, you will generally not be sent home with a prescription for antibiotics. Antibiotics are only effective against bacteria, and should only be prescribed when a bacterial infection is suspected.

Different antibiotics have different modes of action (MOA), each class very specifically targeting some aspect of the bacterium’s physiology or structure in a way that kills or disables the pathogen without harming out cells. There are vaccines to prevent some bacterial infections.

Antivials and Viruses

There are ways to fight viral infections. We can be vaccinated against some of the more serious viral infectious diseases. For a few others there are antiviral drugs that don’t cure, but do help slow down the virus or relieve our symptoms. Most common viral infections that are brief and not potentially life-threatening usually just have to run their course before our own immune system either suppresses or evicts them.

See Suite101 Microbiology topic or SPO's Virtual Microbiology Classroom for more information on microbes and infectious disease.