Antimicrobial chemotherapy
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Antimicrobial chemotherapy is the clinical application of antimicrobial agents to treat infectious disease. There are four types of antimicrobial chemotherapy:
- Antibacterial chemotherapy, the use of antibacterial drugs to treat bacterial infection
- Antifungal chemotherapy, the use of antifungal drugs to treat fungal infection
- Antiprotozoal chemotherapy, the use of antiprotozoal drugs to treat protozoan infection
- Antiviral chemotherapy, the use of antiviral drugs to treat viral infection
Antimicrobial chemotherapy should not be confused with oncological chemotherapy. The word chemotherapy originally meant the use of any chemical agents to treat disease. Traditionally and in specifically microbiological contexts, the word chemotherapy has often been used without a modifier, but today the antimicrobial treatment is often referred to as antimicrobial chemotherapy to avoid confusion with the cancer treatment. Paul Ehrlich is commonly considered the founder of antimicrobial chemotherapy.[1]
See also
- Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
- British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
- Chemotherapy
- Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
References
- ↑ Stefan H.E. Kaufmann, "Paul Ehrlich: founder of chemotherapy." Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 7, 373 (May 2008). doi:10.1038/nrd2582
