Q.11 What are antibiotics? How do they work? OR Discuss their uses.
Answer:
Antibiotics
An antibiotic is a drug that kills or retards the growth of bacteria. They are the chemicals produced by or derived by microorganisms (bacteria and fungi).
Bactericidal Antibiotics
Antibiotics are used to treat many different bacterial infections. Some antibiotics are “bactericidal”, meaning that they kill bacteria.
Bacteriostatic Antibiotics
Antibiotics are those which work by stopping bacterial growth.
Broad-spectrum Antibiotics
Some antibiotics can be used to treat a wide range of infections and are known as broad-spectrum antibiotics. Narrow-spectrum Antibiotics
Others are only effective against a few type of bacteria and are called narrow spectrum antibiotics.