Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Antimicrobial chemotherapy or antibiotic therapy assists our body in the fight against the intruding infectious organisms, mainly bacteria. Majority of bacteria are non-pathogenic and many types of these have symbiotic existence in our body. The pathogenic species of bacteria have been found sensitive to a variety of antibiotics; however, some of these have become resistant to antibiotics. Despite the advancement in diagnostic facilities and availability of a large number of antibiotics, still a patient may die due to infection of drug resistant bacteria. Suboptimal and inappropriate use of antibiotics has probably led to the development of resistance to antibiotics in bacteria. Only a well equipped Microbiology Laboratory can determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of clinically significant bacteria isolated from biological specimens like blood, urine, stool, pus, sputum or other body fluids. Advice on the most appropriate antimicrobial agent (antibiotic) must be obtained form the laboratory before starting antibiotic therapy against offending bacteria. The clinician should use reputed brands of antibiotics and report back to the drug manufacturing company and the testing laboratory for recording the trend of resistance and resistance pattern.