Microbial Control II - Antimicrobial Therapy

These flashcards cover key concepts in antimicrobial therapy, focusing on definitions and important terms related to microbial control.

Antimicrobial Therapy

Administering a drug to an infected person that destroys the infective agent without harming the host’s cells.

Selective Toxicity

The ability of a drug to target harmful microbes without damaging the host's cells.

Microbicidal

A term describing a drug that kills microbes.

Antimicrobial Resistance

The ability of microorganisms to withstand the effects of drugs that once killed them or inhibited their growth.

Narrow Spectrum Antibiotics

Antimicrobial drugs effective against a limited array of microbial types.

Broad Spectrum Antibiotics

Antimicrobial drugs effective against a wide variety of microbial types.

Beta-lactams

A class of antibiotics that include penicillins and cephalosporins, which interfere with cell wall synthesis.

Synergistic Effect

When the combined effect of two drugs is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Competitive Inhibition

A process where a drug competes with a normal substrate for an enzyme’s active site.

Therapeutic Index (TI)

The ratio of the dose of a drug that is toxic to humans to its minimum effective dose.