Fewer than 1% of known antibiotics have any practical value in treatment of disease.Give two reasons why this?

Answer 1

We keep giving our children or ourselves an antibiotic for a longer period of time than the one the doctor said, so the bacteria living under the presence of a antibiotic tend to djust their genes and therefore their needs to the current environment. so they get immunity for the specific drug. that has to do with the fact that we use our medicine as panacea, a solution to all problems! so, our body gets used to them and ten they don't work at all... no, i can't think of a second reason. that's what i've been taught in biology.

Answer 2

Fewer than 1 % ? How you arrived at such perfect stastics is not clear. Many antibiotics are very useful. But routinely an antibiotic is prescribed empirically before culture and sensitivity tests are available. Many infections are neutralised by the immunity of human body. Others don`t respond but antibiotic is changed late. Indiscriminate and empirical use are the causes of antibiotics being ineffective.

Answer 3

Well, antiobiotics can only kill prokaryotic cells. This means they are only effective against prokaryotic infections, and not against disease, per se.

So, any disease caused by a prokaryotic infection WILL be able to be treated using antibiotics (ignoring resistance, which I mention in a moment). But, any disease caused by other things will not be treatable using antibiotics. Wikipedia defines disease as:

"any condition that causes discomfort, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person."

Thus, it is not just prokaryotic infections. Infact, it includes:
" injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function"

Of which, very few are caused by prokaryotes, and thus very few can be treated with antibiotics.

I think the other point you are getting at is the fact that many antibiotics do not work against prolaryotes now, because of resistance. Infact, penicillin, in its natural form, is never now used to treat infection, as no prokaryotes are killed by it. I think <1% is a much dexaggerated number. We still have hundreds of antibiotics used by doctors, vets, and other people that hill infections, much more than 1%.

Hope this helps

Ashley

Answer 4

The effectiveness of individual antibiotics varies with the location of the infection, the ability of the antibiotic to reach the site of infection, and the ability of the microbe to inactivate or excrete the antibiotic.

Answer 5

Not every infection can be treated with antibiotics, i.e. viruses.
Some bacteria are resistant to certain types of antibiotics (mrsa).