Are Antibiotics Effective Against All Diseases?

Many parents take their children to the doctor several times a year due to a throat infection. Usually they expect a prescription for penicillin, to speed up the baby’s recovery, and if you can imagine, they only get some over-the-counter medications instead. So many ask themselves the question: Are antibiotics effective against all diseases?

What are antibiotics?

Antibiotics were first used in the 1940s to fight bacterial infections. Antibiotics usually kill bacteria or prevent them from reproducing. They basically give the immune system a chance to fight the disease, a bit like a backup when the immune system is not enough.

Antibiotics were discovered by chance in 1928 by Alexander Fleming after seeing the effects of a fungus called Penicillium chrysogenum, formerly known as  Penicillium notatum . He had a messy lab and when he was about to throw out a bacterial culture he saw that a fungus was growing there and that it had killed all the bacteria.

The difference between viruses and bacteria

To understand what these drugs do and how effective they are, you need to know what they are attacking. Do they attack viruses or bacteria?

Bacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms. They are usually classified according to their shape: cocci, bacilli, if they reproduce by budding or division and more. Some are beneficial to humans, such as Lactobacillus , and others are not, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis .

A virus, on the other hand, is an infectious agent and needs a host to survive. This is why they are immune to antibiotics . Both are contagious but they are two very different types of microorganisms. Due to their structures, antibiotics are effective against bacteria, but not against viruses.

Are antibiotics effective against everything? The answer is no.

Most infections in children are viral and cannot be treated with antibiotics. In most cases, viruses cause more benign and mild diseases than bacteria such as influenza, measles, bronchitis, chickenpox and most angina and stomach flu.

Bacteria can also cause more dangerous infectious diseases such as rubella, pneumonia or ear infections. However, there is a small group of diseases that can have both a viral and bacterial origin: angina, conjunctivitis and meningitis.

To identify if the infection is viral or bacterial, the doctor can take samples and if they are unsure, they can cultivate a culture to confirm the diagnosis and see if these drugs can be helpful.

What happens if you take too many antibiotics?

KidsHealth points out that it is useless to take antibiotics for viral diseases. This can also give rise to resistance to any subsequent bacterial diseases.

Using antibiotics regularly can alter the genetic material of the bacteria. Thus, these disease-causing bacteria develop a resistance that makes them immune. This is known as bacterial resistance or antibiotic resistance.

This phenomenon has become increasingly common and the medical community calls these microorganisms superbugs . These require very strong antibiotics with severe side effects. These infections are caused by pneumococci (pneumonia), meningococci (meningitis) or infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals.

Conclusion: Are antibiotics effective against all diseases?

Antibiotics are not effective against viruses. Use it only against bacteria and other pathogenic microorganisms. Abusing antibiotics can create superbugs and it also kills the good bacteria that our bodies need.

The World Health Organization has declared that antibiotic resistance diseases are an acute problem for public health. The World Health Assembly 2015 created an action plan that includes:

• Work to improve awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance.
• Strengthen monitoring and research.
• Reduce the incidence of infection.
• Optimize the use of antimicrobial drugs.