Introduction of antibiotics
In: Articles
What are antibiotics?
Nowadays practically everyone knows what antibiotics are like. Antibiotics belong to the group of medical drugs that are prescribed more frequently than all the other medicines. Antibiotics treat various diseases by means of injuring or killing bacteria. Penicillin was the first antibiotic that was accidentally discovered from the mould. Nowadays there are more than 100 antibiotics which treat both minor and serious health problems.
Though antibiotics are used to cure various infections, it is important to know that they treat bacterial infections only. Antibiotics are not effective against viral infections, such as, for example, virus influenza or cold. Fungal infections (for example, ringwarm) cannot be treated by antibiotics as well.
Types of antibiotics
Although nowadays exist about 100 antibiotics, the majority of them come from few types of drugs. The main types of antibiotics include the following classes:
- Penicillins (penicillins, amoxicillin);
- Cephalosporins (such as, for example, cephalexin);
- Fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, levofloxacin);
- Macrolides (azithromycin, erythromycin, clarithromycin);
- Tetracyclines (tetracycline and doxycycline);
- Sulfonamides (co-trimoxazole and tobramycin);
- Aminoglycosides (gentamicin and tobramycin).
Usually antibiotics have two names: the brand name of the product, which is created by the manufacturer, and a generic name, indicating chemical structure and class of the product. Some brand names of medical drugs are capitalized, for example, Zithromax and Keflex, while the others are not capitalized, foe example, azithromycin and cephalexin.
Tags: antibiotic, infection, penicillin, drug, nowadays, type, cephalexin, product, tobramycin, brand.
