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Definitions
- Antibiotic resistance
- Bird flu
- Climate change & insect-borne disease
- Genomics
- Malaria
- Nanotechnology for health
- Tuberculosis
A directory of terms related to antibiotic treatment, useful for discussing the development of antibiotic resistance. (Sources: Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, Union of Concerned Scientists, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
B
Bacteria
Single-celled microscopic organisms that often live together in colonies.
Biodiversity
The number of living organisms, and the variability among them and their environments.
Broad-spectrum antibiotics
An antibiotic is termed 'narrow-spectrum' or 'broad-spectrum' depending on the range of bacterial types that it affects (see Narrow-spectrum antibiotics). Broad-spectrum antibiotics are active against a wider number of bacterial types and thus may be used to treat a variety of infectious diseases; they are particularly useful when the infecting bacteria is unknown. Examples of broad-spectrum antibiotics are the aminoglycosides, the second and third generation cephalosporins, the quinolones and some synthetic penicillins. Narrow-spectrum antibiotics are active against a select group of bacterial types. Examples of narrow-spectrum antibiotics are the older penicillins (penG), the macrolides and vancomycin.
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