9 interesting facts about antibiotics
- In common usage, an antibiotic is a substance or compound that kills, or inhibits the growth of, bacteria.
- Penicillin was introduced in the 1940s.
- The term "antibiotic" was coined by Selman Waksman in 1942 to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution.
- In 1954 two million pounds of antibiotics were produced in the U.S. In the year 2000 this figure exceeds 50 million pounds.
- Scientists have developed more than 150 antibiotics to help stop the spread of infectious diseases.
- More antibiotics are used on animals than on humans.
- Antibiotics can kill most of the bacteria in your body that are sensitive to them, including “good” bacteria.
- Antibiotics should only be used when prescribed by your doctor. Certain antibiotics (aminoglycosides) can only be given as an injection.
- In addition to this origin-based classification into natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic, antibiotics may be divided into two broad groups according to their effect on microorganisms: those that kill bacteria are bactericidal agents, while those that only impair bacterial growth are known as bacteriostatic agents.
