Antibiotic Resistance (cont.)
In this Article
- Drug resistance facts*
- Drug resistance definitions
- Antimicrobial
- Antibiotic
- Antibacterial
- MRSA and VRE
- What is drug resistance?
- History of antimicrobial drug resistance
- Causes of antimicrobial drug resistance
- Diagnosis of antimicrobial drug resistance
- Treatment of antimicrobial drug resistance
- Prevention of antimicrobial drug resistance
- Antimicrobial resistance: A growing health issue
- Drug-resistant microbes of concern today
- Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
- Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE)
- Microbes increasingly resistant to drugs
Drug resistance definitions
Antimicrobial
Antimicrobial is a general term given to substances including medicines that kill or slow the growth of microbes.
Microbe is a collective name given to bacteria (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus, which causes some staph infections), viruses (e.g., influenza, which causes the flu), fungi (e.g., Candida albicans, which causes some yeast infections), and parasites (e.g., Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria)
Examples of antimicrobial agents:
- Tetracycline (one antibiotic used to treat urinary tract infections )
- Oseltamivir or Tamiflu® (antiviral that treats the flu)
- Terbinafine or Lamisil® (antifungal that treats athlete's foot)
Antibiotic
An antibiotic is a medicine designed to kill or slow the growth of bacteria and some fungi. Antibiotics are commonly used to fight bacterial infections, but cannot fight against infections caused by viruses.
Example of an antibiotic:
- Azithromycin or Zithromax (Z-Pak)®
- Vancomycin is the last line of defense for certain methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections.
Learn more about: Zithromax
Next: Antibacterial
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