Do antibiotics kill fungus?
Are you one of the people confused about whether antibiotics kill fungus? Well kudos to you for being curious enough to ask this! It’s a common issue because many individuals use these two terms synonymously, without truly understanding their differences.
To clearly answer your question, I’ll break down how antibiotics and anti-fungal medication work or don’t work against fungi.
What are antibiotics?
Antibiotics are medications utilized to treat bacterial infections in humans (and animals). There are numerous types of bacteria that can cause illness, and each type requires specific antibiotics. These drugs operate by impeding or obliterating bacteria directly. They basically slam the door on the invader while preserving our healthy cells’ safety.
Now picture a game of Whack-a-Mole where the moles represent bad bacteria and your antibiotic pills symbolize mallets – except that all but a selected few moles will be smacked back into oblivion during gameplay.
How do anti-fungal medicines differ from Antibiotics?
Anti-fungal medications have nothing in common with bacteriophages. Whether orally administered as tablets or applied topically onto skin rashes such as athletes foot (yes it is caused by fungus) they specifically target unwelcome fungal intruders rather than proactively eliminating all other living creatures at ground zero (antibacterial warfare).
Fungi come in various types, each necessitates different handling via specially formulated Anti-Fungal Medications (AFMs). A catch-all solution isn’t feasible so let us examine what fungus entails… please read along carefully
What exactly is fungus?
Similar to plants, fungi form an umbilical connection with soil as well multi-celled thread-like structures called hyphae which together constitute mycelium.
Most often overshadowed by germs,the underappreciated organism category known as Fungi consists of multiple species such as Mushrooms, Moulds and Yeasts – which always catches people off-guard being part of this coterie!
How are fungi different from bacteria?
All living things can be categorized into one among five types: Bacteria, viruses, protozoa,multicellular organisms like humans/plants and Fungi.
Let’s compare bacteria with fungus:
| Parameters | BACTERIA | FUNGI |
|---|---|---|
| Cell Type | Prokaryotic | Eukaryotic |
| Structure | Single-celled or colonial | Mostly Multi-cellular (exception is yeast) |
| Reproduction | Asexual | Sexual as well as asexual |
So based on this table it should be clear that the answer to our main question (Do antibiotics kill fungus?) would be “No”. Now let’s move on to other aspects regarding antibacterials.
Why do people misuse antimicrobial medications?
You may have heard someone raving about how their flu symptoms miraculously subsided due to utilizing an antibiotic. However influenza is viral not bacterial so Antibiotics won’t help with disease caused by them. Usage for inappropriate purpose/administration may give rise to an equilibrium- disturbing number of livable drug-resistant microbial strains.
Regular usage messes up your “good” gut microbes too bringing intestinal fungal imbalance i.e., Candidiasis more likely in many cases.
Bonus fact:
Frequent C.diff (Clostridium difficile) infections due to long-term use; these infections cause debilitating bouts of diarrhea resistant even to traditional antibiotics.
So in Summary
Antibiotics specifically kills bad guy bacteria without touching any bystander cells whereas anti-fungal drugs target insidious fungi.
Got It?! Good! Share away with loved ones to get across the myths surrounding Antibiotics.