3.1.8 Antibiotics And Painkillers Flashcards
Types of medical drugs(2p)
- Antibiotics= kill bacterial infections
- Painkillers= relieve symptoms
How do antibiotics work?
- They damage the bacterial cells by inhibiting their cellular processes
Where can antibiotics be naturally produced?
Fungi
Problem with antibiotics
Overuse of antibiotics can cause bacteria to become resistant
Advantages of antibiotics (3p)
- Kill bacterial infections
- Reduce deaths
- Kill bacteria
Disadvantages of antibiotics (3p)
- Don’t kill viruses
- Some people are allergic
- Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics
Why is it more difficult to develop medicines against viruses than developing antibiotics? (2p)
- Viruses reproduce inside by cells
- It is difficult to destroy them without destroying body cells
What type of microorganisms aren’t killed by antibiotics?
Viruses
Antiviral drugs
Drugs that kill viruses
What problems can antiviral drugs cause?
May damage human body cells as well as the virus
Antibiotic resistance
When bacteria develops defences against the antibiotics designed to kill them
Why is antibiotic resistance dangerous?
Makes it more difficult for bacterial infection to be treated
Problems that mutations of pathogens cause: (3p)
- Antibiotic resistance
- Vision/hearing loss
- Physical characteristic abnormalities
Epidemic
Spread of disease in a community
Pandemic
Spread of disease over a whole country or the world
Problems with developing new antibiotics (2p)
- Very expensive
- Growing threat of antimicrobial resistance
