Why can't viruses be treated with antibiotic?

Answer 1

Viruses aren't living, because in order for an organism to be living it must be made up of cells. Antibiotics are made up of dead bacteria so that your body knows how to fight it and learns to get rid of it. Because viruses aren't living in the first place, you can't kill them, and antibiotics won't work. The symptoms, however, CAN be treated.

Answer 2

To understand why viruses cant be treated with antibiotics we must first understand the difference between viruses and bacteria.

Bacteria can replicate on their own without a host. As long as they have the necessary nutrients from their environment they can grow in and on anything living or not. Bacteria don't migrate "into" tissue so antibiotics can easily treat the exposed organisms. This is why antibiotics can be used to treat bacterial infections.

Viruses are more specialized organisms, however. A virus does require a host because it cant replicate without invading a host cell. Once a virus enters a host it latches onto a host cell. The virus inserts its DNA into the hosts cell where the host cell then becomes a breeding ground for new viruses. Eventually, the infected cell bursts releasing the duplicated viruses. The new virus cells then infect other host cells and the process repeats itself. The problem with treating viruses is that antibiotics may treat exposed virus cells, it can not treat host cells infected with the virus. By time the antibiotic treatment is complete more likely than not there are many host cells still containing viruses yet to be released. Furthermore, viruses can go into a "dormant" state where it can reside within a host cell for months, even years before becoming active again. All the while being undetected by out own immune system.

Some viruses can be treated, such as hepatitis, but it can take years of treatment and sometimes the treatment fails.

Answer 3

Antibiotics are only used to treat bacterial infections. They do not work on viral infections