One of the many assertions of stupid science is one that many of your otherwise reasonable, intelligent friends and co-workers are guilty of. I am talking about the banal assertion that antibiotics treat viruses.
For years, public health experts have been begging people to stop taking antibiotics for a fucking cold. Listen to me: Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. Colds and flu are caused by viruses. So shaking down your doctor for antibiotics for your cold, your bronchitis, sinusitis or your viral pneumonia. is an entirely futile and dangerous exercise. The more you gobble those antibiotics, the more you increase your chance of developing antibiotic-resistant bacteria…. Superbugs. Superbugs are a huge public health threat around the world, that is going to kill millions of humans in the next decade. And that is not only going to hurt you, you moron who doesn’t understand the simple science of bacterial. but me, and everyone else.
Viruses are as different from bacteria as frogs are from labradoodles.
Viruses cannot reproduce on their own – they reproduce by infecting a host and using the host’s DNA repair and replication systems to make copies of itself. Viruses are not alive and cannot exist on their own — they are particles containing genetic material wrapped in a protein coat. Viruses grow and reproduce only after they’ve invaded other living cells. The body’s immune system can fight off some viruses before they cause illness, but others (colds, for example) must simply run their course.
A virus may or may not have an outermost spiky layer called the envelope. All viruses have a protein coat and a core of genetic material, either DNA or RNA. And that’s it. Period.
Bacteria are downright complex compared to the simple-minded virus.
Bacteria are much larger than viruses, much more complicated and capable of reproducing on their own. A typical bacterium has a rigid cell wall and a thin, rubbery cell membrane surrounding the fluid, or cytoplasm inside the cell. A bacterium contains all of the genetic information needed to make copies of itself—its DNA—in a structure called a chromosome. It may also have extra loose bits of DNA called plasmids floating in the cytoplasm. Bacteria also have ribosomes.tools necessary for copying DNA so bacteria can reproduce. Some have threadlike structures called flagella that they use to move. As I said, they are very complex.
Bacteria are everywhere and most don’t cause any harm, while some bacteria can cause illness by invading the human body, multiplying, and interfering with normal bodily processes.
Antibiotics are effective against bacteria because they work to kill these living organisms by stopping their growth and reproduction. Antibiotics take advantage of the difference between the structure of the bacterial cell and the host’s cell. Antibiotics are chemicals that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria and are used to treat bacterial infections. They are produced in nature by soil bacteria and fungi. This gives the microbe an advantage when competing for food and water and other limited resources in a particular habitat, as the antibiotic kills off the competition.They either prevent the bacterial cells from multiplying so that the bacterial population remains the same, allowing the host’s defence mechanism to fight the infection, or kill the bacteria (stopping the mechanism responsible for building their cell walls).
BIG WARNING: The last line of antibiotic defence against some majorly serious infections is under threat, now that scientists have identified a gene that enables resistance to spread between bacteria. The gene, called mcr-1, allows a range of common bacteria, including E coli, to become resistant to the last fully functional class of antibiotics, the polymyxins. This gene, they say, is widespread in bugs and carried by pigs. mcr-1 produces a chemical that makes bacteria resistant to colistin, a powerful antibiotic that has dangerous side effects, but is still used as a last-ditch medicine when all others have failed.
For the love of God, people, stop taking antibiotics. So just stop.