Which is the difference between an antibiotic and an antiviral? a) antibiotics build up immunity, and antivirals increase white blood cells. b) antibiotics treat the symptoms, and antivirals destroy the causing organism. c) antibiotics are in liquid form, and antivirals are in mist form. d) antibiotics treat patients who have staphylococcus, and antivirals treat patients who have the flu.

The major difference between antibiotics and antiviral is that antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections such as staphylococcus, and antivirals are used to treat a viral infection such as flu.

Further Explanation:

Antibiotics are discovered by Alexander Fleming. They are clinically significant in eradicating microorganisms from the eukaryotic surfaces by disrupting the peptidoglycan of the bacterial cells and not harming the host cells. Some antibiotics, such as penicillin and bacitracin, inhibit the cell wall synthesis of bacteria. They inhibit the elongation of the polypeptide chain. Staphylococcus is a bacterium that causes multiple bacterial diseases.

Viruses are non-living outside the host cell and become living inside the host cell. They replicate their gene in the host genome machinery that infects the human cell. Anti-viral agents are used to kills the virus. It is very difficult to eradicate viruses without affecting the host cell usually because viruses use host machinery to replicate their gene and make copies. If the drug is administered to kill a virus is more likely to affect the host cell. Therefore, few anti-viral agents are available. The influenza virus is the major cause of flu that is responsible for high fever.

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Answer Details:

Grade: High School

Subject: Biology

Chapter: Microorganism

Keywords:

Antibiotics, host cell, bacterial diseases, antiviral agent, influenza virus, high fever, human cell, multiple bacterial diseases, eukaryotic surface, replicate.

"1. it should be, it has been for about 20 years, and it's really not much different in the end than breeding animals to have particular traits. there are always concerns about genetically engineered animals/plants affecting the environment in unexpected negative ways, but i can't think of an example where the fears didn't turn out to be baseless.  

first, as you point out, it would be a great advance in pharmacology, to be able to tailor drugs and their doses to me. the pros involve better medical treatment. the cons involve privacy issues like insurance companies denying coverage to people with genetic risk factors. looking at dna markers wouldn't affect the frequency of genetic diseases, but it would allow detection of them earlier. and ok, actually i suppose that if people used this information to avoid having children with genetic diseases, some might decrease in frequency."