Chapter 6.2 Antibiotics and painkillers

Question 1

What do painkillers treat?

Answer 1

Painkillers treat the symptoms of disease but do not kill the pathogens that cause it.

Question 2

What do antibiotics treat?

Answer 2

Antibiotics cure bacterial diseases by killing the bacterial pathogens inside your body.

Question 3

What was the first antibiotic created?

Answer 3

Penicillin

Question 4

Why can’t antibiotics kill viruses?

Answer 4

This is because viruses reproduce inside the cells of your body, and it is extremely difficult to develop drugs that will kill viruses without damaging the cells and tissues of your body.