Every individual wishes to be healthy and disease free. Occasionally, the human health gets negatively affected due to pathogenic, disease causing microorganisms. In such cases, one takes antibiotics to cure themselves from this condition. Another mechanism to deal with this problem is vaccination which a prevention mechanism. Let us take a look at both these methods to fight diseases.
Antibiotics are chemical substances produced by some organisms, and can kill or inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. Antibiotics are of two types, bacteriostatic and bactericidal.
Bacteriostatic antibiotics (where static= to stop), slow the growth of bacteria by interfering in its life processes that it needs to be able to multiply. They interfere in
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There are advantages and disadvantages associated with both these approaches.
Antibiotics are effective against infectious microorganisms and some of them are operative against many types of diseases. Antibiotics can kill the pathogens within the body and they only kill the bacteria, not harm any body cells. Another advantage of antibiotics is that they aren’t very costly and are usually affordable. Certain antibiotics are also developed to kill certain human cells and are used to cure cancer.
All these features of antibiotics are a huge advantage but on the other hand, they have certain disadvantages. Overuse or misuse of antibiotic can cause side effects and can also make the pathogen resistant to the medicine. Some antibiotics kill the good bacteria in the body that are actually helpful in various life processes we carry out.
In case of vaccines, the major advantage is the fact that vaccination prepares the immune system against the injected pathogen and of a similar pathogen happens to attack the body in future; it won’t be able to harm the body. Vaccines have also successfully eradicated many diseases according to present day records. Small pox, a very deadly and harmful disease, has been successfully eradicated due to