Chapter Overview

Antimicrobial chemotherapy is the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases by means of chemicals called drugs.
Antimicrobial drugs include antibiotics derived from bacteria and fungi, and synthetic drugs produced by chemical reactions.
Narrow-spectrum antimicrobial drugs affect a small range of microbes, and broad-spectrum drugs affect a wider range of microbes.
Chemotherapy involves a complex interaction between the microbe, drug, and host.
The best antimicrobial drugs have low toxicity to humans and lack other side effects such as drug resistance, allergy, and disruption of natural flora.
The primary action of antimicrobial drugs is to interfere with some specific component of the microbe’s structure, its enzymes, or synthesis of proteins and other molecules.
Drug resistance is a process by which microbes develop genetic changes that allow them to circumvent the effects of a drug.
Hundreds of drugs have been developed for treating bacterial, fungal, protozoan, helminthic, and viral infections.
The predominant antibacterial drug classes are the penicillins, cephalosporins, tetracyclines, sulfa drugs, and fluoroquinolones.
Selecting a drug for therapy is based upon the microbe’s sensitivity to the drug, the drug’s toxicity, and the health of the patient.
Adverse side effects of drugs include damage to skin, liver, kidney, circulatory system, nervous system, and gastrointestinal tract.
Drugs may cause allergies and disrupt the host’s normal flora, leading to other infections.
Antimicrobial drugs are often overprescribed, ineffective, taken in incorrect doses for too short a time, and broadcast into the environment in livestock feeds.
People need to become aware of the correct guidelines for drug therapy as a way to protect drug diversity and prevent drug resistance.

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