Talk:Antibacterial

First antibiotic

What was the first antibiotic? I thought it was penicillin, but a book I have says Sulfa drugs. In that case, what was the significance of penicillin? The article is confusing and uninformative, especially the 'time-line' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.222.224.70 (talk) 15:41, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Introduction revamp

I'm troubled by the rambling nature of the intro to this article. First I think that we should point out the technical definition of antibiotics and then transition into what most people think of when they think of antibiotics. Anyway I typed out my thoughts, but couldn't smoothly combine them with the already stated information.

An antibiotic, by technical definition, is a compound secreted by a microorganism that inhibits the growth of or kills other microorganisms. This strict definition slightly disagrees with the popular connotation that any chemical that inhibits the growth of or kills bacteria is an antibiotic. Purely synthetic agents are referred to as antimicrobials and include all chemicals that destroy or inhibit the growth of any microorganism (not just bacteria). There is a subset of these antimicrobials that are used as medication to treat bacterial infections, and it is these that are routinely included in the term antibiotic. Common usage, even among physicians, allows this merger of ‘antibiotics’ and ‘antibacterial antimicrobials’ for the sake of simplicity.

Anyway, I think there should be clear lines drawn here and vague language removed.

1. The first thing on the page should be the technically accurate definition of antibiotics, maybe with a link to the microbiology page.
2. Then comes the long, confusing task of distinguishing which of the 'antibiotics(micro definition)' and which of the antimicrobials are referred to by the connotation of antibiotics. This will be hard to explain to an average user.
3. Distinguish that Antimicrobials include ALL substances that inhibit or kill any or all of the 4 classes of microbes. This includes disinfectants. Medically, Antimicrobial refers to purely chemotherapeutic agents and forgets the rest.
4. Find a a way to clearly point to the subset of antimicrobial agents that are therapeutically antibacterial.

I believe that I and anyone who wishes to help have a lot of work to do to this article before we even get to improving the subsections.--Mrdeath5493 (talk) 07:54, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree that this article is rambling. It also uses either wordy or passive contructions too often. I'd start with these to begin fixing the readability. Centasiafriend (talk) 05:20, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

resistance to antibiotics

In the article, it should be noted that the new antibiotics that are made against pathogens resistant against multiple antiobiotics are:

• linezolide
• daptomycine

other approaches are fages (mentioned already in article) bacterial interference (making a comeback; new approach here would be the use of genetic modifcation of the bacteria that is introduced to patient by doctor, so that the bacteria is rendered harmless for patient but not for other bacteria) and peptides (commercially made)

finally, viruses (other than bacteriophages) can also be used as a DNA delivery systems see http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/online/1024/a-few-good-viruses . an example is the vaccinia virus which was modified to attack smallpox —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.66.49.94 (talk) 17:45, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

the article called pathogens resistant against multiple antiobiotics can be made by a quick google translate of this dutch wiki page: [1] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.245.181.143 (talk) 08:36, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Bacteriophages

I added a {{expert-subject}} to the Beyond Antibiotics section; there has been some amount of recent attention on the viability of phage therapy and I don't think the section adequately reflects that. -Falcon8765 (talk) 05:59, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Antibiotics and alcohol

There is no categorical danger of mixing antibiotics and alcohol, but some antibiotics cause dangerous interactions with alcohol.

However, there is a widespread belief that there is a general danger, and thus this point may prove contentious; it was incorrect in the article when I read it, misrepresenting the cited sources.

For reference: I’ve stated the consensus medical view (in some cases danger, in most cases none) in this revision (these edits), with extensive quotations and citations, and this Archived discussion also addresses the issue. Hope these help!

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 05:51, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

"consensus medical view" clearly states "avoid drinking alchohol with antibiotics". It says that in most of the sources as a bottom line. Including in that article from which you ripped the sentence out of context: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/antibiotics-and-alcohol/AN01802 I dont understand how some possible explanation of a myth that is "known" only in UK and is 70 years old is relevant. I would rather base on something that is at least scientifically sound. Alcohol and antibiotics are processed by the liver. You overload the liver with one, it will choke on another. This is a serious issue - do not make it sound as if it is not dangerous at all. Some dude might read it, say oh well, go get drunk and die. Is it something you want? Andru nl (talk) 22:26, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

what kind of antbiotics are usuaally used for tooth infections?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.34.43.123 (talk) 04:41, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

can you take doxycycline if you are allergic to penicillin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.24.35.17 (talk) 22:21, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Penetration of Antibiotics into Human Bone Tissue

We have added a paragraph about Penetration of Antibiotics into Human Bone Tissue, documented by bibliography, but someone deleted it. Why? Please contact with the author Dr. Harry Gouvas Greece, in harrygouvas@gmail.com Harrygouvas (talk) 11:33, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Synergy

There are classic examples of antibiotic synergy, and I thought a company had started down this path with not only 2-way (binary) synergistic compounds, but they were also considering higher, k-way interactions. I thought it was PharmaceuticalRX in Boston (~2003), but a Google search now yields little. I also have some email between Douglas Youvan and the Chief Scientist of the CIA dated 2002 after the anthrax attack. As his biographer, I know he took this synergy work further at the NSTDA and worked out a procedure for rapidly combining binary pairs of antibiotics. Looking through our Wikipedia articles on topics related to synergy, I don't see much. Perhaps we should start a new section, even if it is just the older, published work. Some of those publications have nice pictures of clearing zones on Petri dishes where synergy is easily comprehended by a reader. Youvan also published math and computer graphics simulations on www.youvan.com - more nice images for a new section. Bridgettttttte_babble^poop 12:36, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Someone please figure out what to add

Is this the right article to add these news items?

• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=our-big-pig-problem
• http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-antibiotics-agriculture-20110425,0,7598829.story
• http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/651982.html

Are there other article(s) where this would be (more) appropriate? 99.39.5.103 (talk) 00:19, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Someone of the science reference desk suggested this would be better at Antibiotic_resistance#Role_of_other_animals or Factory farming. I still don't know how to add this, so please do if you do. 99.39.5.103 (talk) 15:06, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

The merging of antibacterial and antibiotics - does it run contrary to the general public's understanding, and if so, will the merging of the articles cause misunderstanding or harm?

I am not a medical- or health- professional. I am not questioning the professional's decision to place antibacterial and antibiotics on the same page. However, for the general public (non-medical professionals) who use Wikipedia as a general reference (for example, to verify claims made by a third party), given the article's current presentation and organization, will they be able to correctly apply the information to answer their questions?

At the very least, members of generic public should be able to quickly find out which chemicals listed on this page are intended for internal use (oral, intravenous, etc) versus external use?

98.112.33.186 (talk) 07:36, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

I believe merging the two is incorrect. Not all antibacterial agents are antibiotics. There should be two separate articles - one that generally describes antibacterial agents and one on antibiotics. These articles might be helpful: http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/agents.shtml#1 or http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotica --AmateurArzt (talk) 14:35, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

European Antibiotic Awareness Day

Details shoudl be added on this - as there is "American" awareness raising on proper use of. Thus Europe - a bigger area, greater population shoudl also be mentioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.113.96.60 (talk) 23:27, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Sideromycins

I see a fair amount of literature is available on the sideromycins, albomycin and salmycin, but don't see them discussed in this article or for that matter elsewhere on WP. Is that just an oversight, or is there some reason to exclude them?

• PMC 2757582
• PMID 17459767
• PMID 11934617
• PMID 18221784

LeadSongDog come howl! 18:06, 17 February 2012 (UTC)