Question

Antibiotics are effective in curing tuberculosis but not effective in curing common cold. Given reason.​

Answer 1

• Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that means it is a bacterial disease.​​

• The antibiotics inhibit the growth of bacteria by targeting the cell wall and blocking the cell wall building process in bacteria. Thus, the bacteria are unable to produce cell wall and die.​

• However, viruses have different survival pathways than bacteria. Viruses mainly takeover host cell machinery for survival and replication.​

• Viruses have a protective envelope instead of a cell wall which cannot be targeted or broken down by antibiotics.​

• Hence, the antibiotics remain ineffective for viral infections like common cold caused by virus.​