Antibiotics are antibacterial drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria. The tiny organisms known as bacteria are responsible for causing illness and various physical disorders to both human and animals. A bacterium-caused illnesses, such as tuberculosis, salmonella, syphilis and certain forms of meningitis can well be treated using antibiotics. There are also good bacteria that don’t harm our body.

You should know that some antibiotics kill bacteria (known as bactericidal antibiotics) while some antibiotics just prevent the growth of bacteria (known as bacteriostatic). Hence, different groups of antibiotics act upon bacteria differently.

Some antibiotics are taken as a preventive measure to kill the bacteria responsible for damaging certain body parts. For example, in ear infection, the bacteria harm the ear internally by producing chemicals causing inflammation. They also disable immune system causing painful inflammation in the ear. Hence, antibiotics are taken to kill the bacteria to wipe out the inflammation.

The antibiotics work as a selective poison. Hence, they should be chosen carefully after properly identifying the bacteria. As said before, different antibiotics act differently on different bacteria. Some antibiotics disable bacterium’s ability to make its cell wall or its ability to turn glucose into energy. Here, the bacterium dies without further reproduction.

Antibiotics don’t work on viruses as they are not living agents. Because, viruses are simply a piece of DNA which is injected to another living cell and reproduce more DNA viral cells out of it. This is the reason that antibiotics don’t act on viruses.

Therefore, antibiotics work differently on different bacteria. While some antibiotics work selectively on targeted bacteria, some antibiotics work as killing elements on wide range of bacteria. However, recognition of exact bacteria is crucial to ensure that antibiotics will work properly.