Question

Q5. Case study: Peter Smith, a 19 year old university student, was suffering from influenza and visited his local GP. He said he began to feel unwell two days earlier and his condition had worsened since with an acute onset of a sore throat(pharyngitis). On examination the following observations were made: Fever of 38.9 degrees C, Runny nose, Sneezing, Enlarged anterior cervical lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) Peter’s throat was observed to have the following signs: Redness, Swollen, Having a patchy covering of yellow-white exudate over his tonsils The doctor prescribed phenoxymethylpenicillin 500 mg twice per day for ten days.

Question: Explain why antibiotics are not effective against viruses.

Answer 1

To understand this problem, first we have to understand what exactly is antibiotic. It is an small compound made in the laboratory responsible for killing the pathogens. Bacteria is a very tiny living cell which can grow, divide and respond to its environment. Antibiotic which stands for 'Anti' that is 'against' and 'bio' means living cell, is specifically designed to kill the living pathogens i.e bacterial cells. They do it by either inhibiting the production of bacterial cell wall or by attacking the transpoter protein of the bacterial cell or by directly attacking the genetic material of bacterial cell. However they have a special property that it does not cause any harm to human cell. Unlike bacteria, virus is not a living cell and it has a protein coat and some genetic material that sits inside that coating and is not capable of making more of itself on its own. However, the only way it can make more of itself is if it infects the host cell i.e. cell of the human body or any other living creature. It enters the cell membrane of human cell and coops the machinery of that cell and makes many more of itself. As antibiotics can not harm the human cells, they are also ineffective against the viruses that are already inside the human cell.