A NTIBIOTICS AND V ACCINES

B ACTERIAL I NFECTIONS

A NTIBIOTICS substances that kills or weaken micro-organisms natural – produced by bacteria or fungi synthetic – manufactured by humans used in nature by bacteria and fungi to kill other micro-organisms they compete with for resources used by humans to kill bacteria that cause infection and disease

P ENICILLIN very commonly used antibiotic produced by moulds refined by humans kills by weakening cell walls of bacteria

A NTIBIOTIC R ESISTANCE occurs when a population of bacteria can no longer be killed by an antibiotic occurs overtime when antibiotics cannot kill all bacteria in a population resistant bacteria continue to divide and make up more of the population bacteria population evolve to be unaffected by the antibiotic

P REVENTING A NTIBIOTIC R ESISTANCE following prescription given by the doctor only using antibiotics when necessary reducing the use of “anti-bacterial” products

V IRAL I NFECTIONS

V ACCINES substances that contain weakened forms or parts of a dangerous virus do not cause viral diseases used by humans to cause immune system to create antibodies that will kill dangerous viruses when exposed to active viruses

U SES OF V IRUSES creating vaccines delivering drugs to target cells gene therapy inserting a missing gene into a person’s DNA creating genetically modified organisms

V IRONS AND P RIONS viron small pieces of RNA that do not have a capsid infect many plant species prion abnormally shaped proteins attack brain and nervous tissue