Microbial Pathogenesis & Infectious Diseases

Antimicrobials

An antimicrobial is an agent that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms in a human body. The microbial agent may be a chemical compounds or may be a physical agents. Antimicrobial medicines may be sorted in keeping with the microorganisms and they act as a primarily against. As an example, antibiotics are used against bacteria and antifungals, can also be used against fungi. They can also be classified according to their function. Agents that kill microbes are also known as microbicidal, whereas those who simply inhibit their growth are called biostatic. The utilization of antimicrobial medicines to treat infection is known as antimicrobial chemotherapy, whereas the utilization of antimicrobial medicine to prevent infection is known as antimicrobial prophylaxis. These agents interfere with the growth and reproduction of causative organisms like bacteria, fungi, parasites, virus etc. The main categories of antimicrobial agents are disinfectants, which kill a wide range of microbes on non-living surfaces to prevent the spread of illness, antiseptics which are applied to living tissue and help to reduce infection throughout surgery, and antibiotics that destroy microorganisms inside the body.