Microbiology question:
How can taking antibiotics for a viral infection be harmful for a patient in the immediate future?
Antibiotics are strong medicines that treat bacterial infections. Antibiotics won't treat viral infections because they can't kill viruses. Because viruses are non living obligate intracellular parasites and the don't have any cellular organelle hence they use host cell machineries for multiplication. So it is difficult to distroy viral cell specifically without affecting host cells. Some antiviral drugs like rebavirin are used to inhibit viral multiplication.
The use of antibiotics for viral infection will result in harmful effects. Antibiotics don't give protection to the virus . The use antibiotics can lead to the resistance of normal bacteria commensals of the body. When these oppertunistic pathogens will active they can not be controlled or distroied by those antibiotics. Which will ultimately results in the use of higher antibiotics to control the infection.
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