Classes of Antibiotics

Antibiotics are famous, thanks to their widespread usage, yet one must ask questions about antibiotics, their efficacy and safety. They are administered routinely in case of injuries, trauma and diseases. So what are antibiotics? Antibiotics are a class of medicines designed to fight or destroy microbial infections. Antibiotics were once synonymous with antibacterial action. Now their usage also extends to their antiviral, antifungal and anti-parasitic action.

If you had suffered from a recent sports injury or fever, chances are you were told to apply a topical antibiotic or given antibiotic pills. Antibiotics aren’t new science. Antibacterial medicine has being around for over 2000 years when mold, plant extracts and minerals were used to treat common diseases. Penicillin was one of the first modern day drugs to be used effectively against diseases.

Classes of antibiotics: 

Antibiotics can be classified by their biochemical structure, the way they act, their functionality and use. Antibiotics are classified as thus:

• Penicillins, cephalosporins, polymixins destroy the bacterial cell wall and the cell membrane interfere

• Quinolones and sulfonamides destroy bacterial enzymes

• Macrolides, tetracyclines  and aminoglycosides change the protein synthesis  of bacteria

Applications of antibiotics:  

Antibiotics are commonly used to treat infections of gram positive or negative bacteria. The applications of antibiotics are huge and routinely used to treat most diseases. These applications include:

• Cholera, tuberculosis, plague, whooping cough and typhoid fever

• Bacterial pneumonia, bronchitis and other respiratory infections

• Tetanus, anthrax infections, enteritis, common cold and fever and colitis

• Diphtheria, diarrhea, urinary tract infections, arthritis, trachoma, congenital syphilis, gonorrhea and wide variety of sexually transmitted diseases

• Common infections during injuries, accidents  and trauma

Besides use of antibiotics in antibacterial applications, new classes of antibiotics are also useful to treat fungal, parasitic and viral infections. They are used to treat dandruff, scalp, head, legs and urinary infections, ringworm, tapeworm, sleeping sickness and vaginitis. Antibiotics are used to modulate the immune response of the body in critical immunity related diseases. Prophylactic antibiotics are used preemptively in people who are susceptible to infections such as AIDs patients.

Antibiotics can be administered as tablets, capsules, syrups, ointments, lotions, creams, drops such as eye drops, injections or given intravenously using tubes.