Combined Science GCSE
Antibiotics
What Antibiotics means in Combined Science GCSE, as defined for AQA.
Definitions of Antibiotics
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Reference: AQA
Substances that work by interfering with structures or processes found in bacteria, such as bacterial cell walls or bacterial protein synthesis.
Medicines that treat bacterial infections by killing infective bacteria or stopping their growth inside the body.
Medicines that kill bacteria or stop their growth, unlike medicines that only relieve symptoms.
Medicines that kill bacteria or stop them growing, so they treat infectious bacterial diseases.
These do not kill viruses because viruses lack bacterial targets such as cell walls.
Topics that use Antibiotics
- Antibiotics and painkillers (AQA GCSE)
- Communicable (infectious) diseases (AQA GCSE)
Related terms
- Breaking the chain of infection
- Difference between antibiotics and antivirals
- Hygiene and sanitation
- Natural selection of resistant bacteria
- Obligate parasites
- Painkillers
- Pathogen groups and disease
- Resistant strain
Using Antibiotics in the exam
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