Antibiotic may be:
Bacteriostatic
Bactericidal
BACTERIOSTATIC:
Bacteriostatic drugs inhibit the growth of microorganisms temporarily. The therapeutics success of these agents depends upon the participation of defense mechanism of the host. The effect may be reversible i.e. when the drug used is stopped, the organisms will resume growth and infection or disease will reoccur in Immune compromised patient.
BACTERICIDAL:
The term bactericidal is applied to describe those agents, which kill the microorganisms. The examples of such drugs are Penicillin, Cephalosporin, Aminoglycosides, and Monobactam. The treatment with bactericidal drugs becomes mandatory in case of those infections that cannot be controlled or eradicated by defense mechanism of the host. For example, infective endocarditis. However the term bactericidal and bacteriostatic are relative and not absolute. As some times prolonged treatment with or higher dose of Bacteriostatic agent can cause death of microbial population (Chloramphenicol and meningococci) while bactericidal drugs may fail to kill the microbes e.g. Penicillin-G and enterococci.
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