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Q: Why cant we use antibiotics on viruses but we do on bacteria?
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Why cant you use antibiotics to kill virus but bacteria can be killed by antibiotics?

Because bacteria and viruses are two completely different things. Antibiotics - as their name implies - will kill bacteria, but antibiotics simply have no effect on viruses.


What are antibiotics and how are they use?

Antibiotics are substances that kill bacteria. They are not able to neutralise viruses. Bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, so misusing them for non-bacterial infections could have serious consequences rendering the antibiotic ineffective.


Why are antibiotics not used on viral infections?

Antibiotics damage the cell wall of living organism leading to its death. The viruses do not have a cell wall. Antibiotics are produced by bacteria and fungi that treat bacterial infections, not viral infections because viruses use host cells to perform their activities. So, they cannot kill viruses. That's why antibiotics are not effective for viral diseases.


Why is antibiotics given for bacteria and not virus infection?

Simply because antibiotics only kill bacteria, and not viruses. There are no medications to kill viruses, your body has to fight the virus off on its own. There are some antiviral medications, but they do not kill the virus, they only prevent its growth, and only for very specific strains of very specific viruses.


Why can you not kill flu with antibiotics?

Antibiotics are only for killing bacteria, they do not work on viruses which are the cause of the flu. Bacteria are living organisms and so poisons and chemicals can actually kill them. But flu viruses are non-living organisms so they can not be killed, they can only be inactivated by damage or physical blocking by antibodies (made by our immune systems) of the shapes of the structures viruses use to attach to a host's cells. Viruses need a host's cells to use to reproduce, if they can not attach to the cells, they will be inactivated. Antibiotics are not capable of inactivating them.


Why do antibiotic work against bacteria but not viruses?

It is certainly possible to find a toxic cemical that kills everything, which would include bacteria, viruses, and us as well. The whole trick of antibiotics is to find something that does kill bacteria but doesn't harm the person whose bacterial infection we are treating. In order to do this we have to find some chemical reaction that bacteria use in their normal metabolic processes, but that people do not use. So antibiotics are very closely tailored to the specific biochemistry of target bacteria. Viruses have quite different biochemistry.


Why cant antibiotics be used to treat diseases like flu or HIV?

Antibiotics are used for bacteria, HIV and FLU are a type of viris, not a bacteriumyou would have to use anti-viral tablets but they are not very effective because they can destroy your cells (viruses reproduce inside cells)Antibiotics generally work by destroying the cell walls of bacteria. The flu is caused by a virus, which is not a cell and does not have a cell wall. Antibiotics cannot be used against viral diseases.


Can i use cifloc 500 tablets for flu?

Won't help. Colds and flus are caused by viruses. Antibiotics - like Cifloc - only work on illnesses caused by bacteria. And over-use of antibiotics - like taking Cifloc for flus and colds - is the biggest reason why strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are appearing.


Why can't we use antibiotic to treat the disease caused by viruse?

Antibiotics can't be used to treat viral diseases or conditions because antibiotics just aren't affective against viruses. Bacteria and viruses are different things. Bacteria are living things that can be killed, they reproduce asexually via binary fission. Basically that means that one bacteria cell splits into two and then those two turn into separate bacterial cells. Viruses replicate themselves by injecting a healthy cell with their DNA or RNA. One of the weird things about viruses, though, is that they are not alive. Antibiotics, depending on the specific antibiotic, are designed either to kill bacteria, or prevent them from multiplying. However, since viruses and bacteria are completely different even down to the way they reproduce, antibiotics are useless against viruses.


Why do you use antibiotics?

Because they stop viruses.


Why might you treat a bacterial infection but not a viral disease with an antibiotic?

Antibiotics have no affect on a virus, only on bacteria.


What would you not use in treating a virus?

Antibiotics are not effective against viruses, only against bacteria. Antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu are effective against most forms of H1N1 and many other flu viruses