plz explain briefly Antimicrobials

Antimicrobials

Disease in man and animal may be caused by a variety of microorganisms e.g. bacteria, viruses etc. Microorganism or microbes are extremely small organisms which can be seen only through a microscope. Any organism that causes disease is called a pathogen. However, body possesses an efficient natural defence mechanism, which operates at all times against potential pathogenic microbes. Intact skin is impervious to microbes. Many body secretions either kill the microbes or inhibit their growth. Example are lysozyme (a lipid splitting enzyme) in tears, nasal secretion and saliva, fatty acids and lactic acid in sweat and sebaceous secretions, and hydrochloric acid in stomach. A breach in defence mechanism allows the pathogens to reach tissues, and this causes infection. Invasion and multiplication of a organism in the infected host result in the onset of disease due to the destruction of the normal cell metabolism. In addition, toxins (toxic substances) produced by the microbes may adversely affect the tissues or organs of the host. The control of microbial disease can be achieve in three ways by:

•           a drug which kills the organism in the body (bactericidal).

•           a drug which inhibits or arrests the growth of the organism (bacteriostatic) and

•           increasing immunity and resistance to infection of the body.

Antibiotics are the class of drugs used as antimicrobials.