Overview of Antibacterial Medications – Infectious Diseases [Video]

Antibiotics should be used only if clinical or laboratory evidence suggests bacterial infection. Use for viral illness or undifferentiated fever is inappropriate in most cases; it exposes patients to antibiotic-related complications, disrupts healthy normal microbiota, and contributes to bacterial resistance without any benefit. Antimicrobial-resistant organisms were associated with nearly 5 million deaths around the world in 2019 (1), and antibiotic misuse is an unnecessary driver of resistance rates. Extensive information about antimicrobial resistance is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2) and the World Health Organization (3).

Certain bacterial infections (eg, abscesses, infections with foreign bodies) require surgical intervention and do not respond to antibiotics alone.

In general, clinicians should use antibiotics with the narrowest spectrum of activity and for the shortest duration.

(See also Antibiotics in Neonates.)