Antibiotics are sold without prescription in many countries. On the one hand it makes them easier to use, but on the other – this fact contributes to the development of resistance of various pathogens to this medication – due to common human fecklessness. Often doctors prescribe antibiotics for children. They treat the temperature that lasts a few days as a tragedy. It is not a secret that the cause of many diseases are microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. Antibiotics have effect on bacteria. That is why it’s inappropriate to use them, for example, in cases of flu, SARS and other viral infections.
However, you need to be especially careful in the choice of therapy, as uncontrolled use of antibiotics can adversely affect both the body and the disease. For example, if you interrupt a course of antibiotic therapy, some microorganisms can survive by acquiring resistance to antibiotics. And now you do not only have to start the treatment again (and this may have a toxic effect of both the organism and those bacteria that normally have to live with us), but also replace the antibacterial preparation with the more powerful or more new one, which the majority of micro-organisms has not yet developed resistance to. Canadian Pharmacy advises take antibiotics only on doctor’s advice.
Antibiotics Action
Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections. Microorganisms differ in the severity of their disease-causing properties. Some of them are able to overcome the defenses of the human body and cause extremely serious and even fatal diseases (causative agents of plague, meningitis), our body copes with others without assistance (for example, agents of colds).
Depending on the internal organization, microorganisms are divided into 4 groups:
- Bacteria;
- viruses;
- fungi;
- protozoa (amoeba, giardia, etc.).
Bacteria, fungi and protozoa have the cellular structure, contain DNA and RNA, and protein, synthesis sitemy ATP ( “fuel” for biochemical reactions), and therefore capable of self-propagation.
Viruses are deprived of cellular organization. They represent a molecule of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein capsule; they are absolute parasites that are able to show signs of life (even multiply) only after penetration into cells of a body (plant, animal, human), using their cell as biochemical “mini-factories”.
Features of the Medical Terminology
The first substances that have damaging effects on microorganisms, but acceptable for a man, were found among derivatives of synthetic dyes. They were used to treat sifilisai and called “chemotherapy”, the treatment process was called chemotherapy. Today, chemotherapy generally involves treatment of cancer, but that is not quite true.
Somewhat later scientists learned how to make use of the phenomenon of the bacteria opposition (antagonism). The fact is that bacteria are distributed almost everywhere in nature (in soil, water, etc.), as other living creatures they are forced to struggle for existence. And the main weapon in this fight are special substances produced by some types of bacteria which have detrimental effect on other species. These substances are called antibiotics.
Unfortunately, antibacterial drugs that suppress the vital activity of both bacteria and viruses have not been found so far, as differences in the structure and characteristics of the metabolism of these microorganisms are fundamental. Despite the significant advances in molecular biology and biochemistry, medications that can effectively act on the virus are still not enough, and their effectiveness is not that high.
So, there are antibiotics – substances of a natural origin, and chemotherapy – artificially created substances of a similar effect, combined by a basic term “antibiotics”. Features of terminology can cause difficulties for a layman. Sometimes we may hear a buyer asking a pharmacist: “Biseptolum (or, eg, ciprofloxacin) is an antibiotic or not?” The fact is that these two drugs are antibacterial agents from the group of chemotherapeutic agents. But differences between antibiotics and chemotherapy are not very important in the course of treatment, so the separation of antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs is slowly but surely becoming a part of history.
What are Antibiotics?
It is important to know that human cells vital processes are fundamentally different from the bacterial cell life processes. Antibacterial drugs have a selective effect on life processes of bacteria, inhibiting them, and do not affect the processes in the cells of the human body. Thus, presently known antibiotics classification is based on their action mechanism and chemical structure.
- Some antibiotics inhibit the synthesis of the outer shell (membrane) of a bacterial cell – a structure, which is completely absent in the human cell. The most important drugs of this group are antibiotics penicillins, cephalosporins and some other preparations;
- Other antibiotics inhibit different stages of bacterial cells protein synthesis: these are drugs belonging to the group of tetracyclines, macrolides, aminoglycosides.
Antibacterials differ significantly in their main property – antibacterial activity. The instruction for each of antibacterial drug has a list of bacteria sensitive to it – the spectrum of its activities;
- Some antibiotics (broad spectrum) act on the many types of bacteria;
- other antibiotics (narrow spectrum) work only for certain types of microbes.
Resistance of Microorganisms to Antibiotics
All living things, including bacteria quickly adapt to adverse environmental conditions. Development of resistance to antibiotics is one of the most striking examples of such adaptation. You may argue that sooner or later any kind of bacteria becomes immune to any antibiotic. Moreover, the larger amount of the drugs is used, the faster the process deevelops. As soon as the bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics, humanity is forced to invent new drugs. So, if today we are going to appoint antibiotics to children without any control, we will have to invent new medications to treat our grandchildren in the future.
The course of this race provokes conflicts of interest in our society. The society is generally interested in reducing the cost of antibiotics and maintaining the balance between cost and efficiency of treatment with Canadian Family Pharmacy antibiotics. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to restrict the use of antimicrobial drugs with strict indications, in order to avoid unnecessary costs for the development and production of new drugs.
Manufacturers of antibacterial drugs are, on the contrary, interested in increasing sales volume (due to the expansion of indications), which will inevitably lead to a more rapid spread of microbial resistance to drugs and, as a consequence, the need to develop more new products.
Unfortunately, the massive and uncontrolled use of antimicrobial drugs has led to widespread microbial resistance. Besides, the uncontrolled use of antibacterial drugs may enhance antibiotics side-effects. Today in our country the majority of pathogens of the most common infections are resistant to such drugs as Biseptol, Gentamicin, Tetracycline.
It seems that this problem can be easily solved in the lab. But, alas, the application of modern research methods allows to receive the answer only after 2-3 days. Due to this fact, antimicrobial drugs are prescribed empirically in the real world, i.e. based on existing experience.
But even the most brilliant doctor can not gain his own experience on the use of all the possible antibacterial drugs and say confidently that drug A is better than drug B. In addition, it is necessary to consider a particular geographical region spread among bacteria resistant to a particular drug. The doctor will inevitably have to use:
- The basis of the special research results;
- critical analysis;
- world and national experience;
- recommendations for the treatment of standards developed by experts.
Be careful choosing antibiotics. You may buy antibiotics online in Canadian Family Pharmacy on beneficial conditions and affordable price: Zithromax, Ampicillin, Augmentin, Macrobid, Amoxicillin and others. Choose only reliable pharmacies!