KNOW ANTIBIOTICS: PENICILLIN
Know Your Antibiotics: Penicillin
You have a sore throat, you've been feeling hot and cold. You go to the doctor and he says you have pharyngitis. What's that? You ask. He says "it's a sore throat"."Oh, you say, and for this I payed seventy five dollars?" Ignoring your sarcasm,the doctor responds "Let's do a rapid strep test".
The rapid strep test is an antibody based test to detect the presence of Strep bacteria in the throat. The benefit of it is that it provides results within minutes. The downside is that it may be falsely negative.In this case, the test comes back positive and the doctor decides to prescribe penicillin.
Antibiotics are chemicals that can destroy bacteria. When the doctor makes a diagnosis he or she tries to determine what are the bacteria most likely to be involved. In this case, confirmation of the presence of strep leads the doctor to prescribe penicillin, the drug of choice for strep.
Many people think that bacteria and viruses are one in the same. They use the terms interchangeably. Viruses are thousands of times smaller than bacteria. They have a different structure.In fact some viruses,called bacteriophage, attack bacteria. Most importantly antibiotics don't kill viruses. However, it is possible to be infected by viruses and bacteria simultaneously.
The discovery and development of penicillin is a fascinating story in itself. Although Fleming discovered penicillin,as a mold, it was a group of dedicated researchers propelled by the Second World War who developed penicillin into the life saver it is today.
The doctor could prescribe amoxicillin,perhaps the most commonly used of all antibiotics. Many people don't realize that amoxicillin is a form of penicillin. Over time a plethora of penicillin forms and derivatives have been produced. Amoxicillin, ampicillin, bicillin, dicloxacillin are all penicillins. You may not realize that a drug you are using is penicillin related. You can't tell just by the name.Augmentin doesn't sound like it is penicillin but is amoxicillin, a penicillin along with an added ingredient.
Another class of antibiotics though not penicillin can sometimes cause a reaction in people with penicllin allergies. Keflex,Ceclor, Rocephin are members of the cephalosporins. As many as ten percent of people who are allergic to penicillin may have a reaction to a cephalosporin.
As you have heard, bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics. In the case of penicillin they have developed the ability to produce penicillinase, a chemical that can destroy penicillin. Scientists have responded with drugs like Augmentin, a combination of amoxicillin and clavulinate. The clavulinate acts to disable the penicillinase.
But some bacteria have even developed ways to defeat the Augmentin. In fact the Achilles heel of all bacteria is that sooner or later some bacteria somewhere start to evolve defenses against them.
