I. Metronidazole Medication :
Metronidazole medication is an oral synthetic antiprotozoal and antibacterial agent..
Antibacterials & Antiprotozoals: Metronidazole Information
An antibacterial is an agent that interferes with the growth and reproduction of bacteria. While (Metronidazole) antibiotics and antibacterials both attack bacteria, these terms have evolved over the years to mean two different things.
Antibacterials are now most commonly described as agents used to disinfect surfaces and eliminate potentially harmful bacteria. Unlike (Metronidazole) antibiotics, they are not used as medicines for humans or animals, but are found in products such as soaps, detergents, health and skincare products and household cleaners.
Antiprotozoal drugs are medicines that treat infections caused by protozoa.
Protozoa are animal-like, one-celled animals, such as amoebas. Antiprotozoal drugs are used to treat a variety of diseases caused by protozoa. Some are parasites that cause infections in the body. African sleeping sickness, giardiasis, amebiasis, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), and malaria are examples of diseases caused by protozoa.
Bacteria: information
BACTERIA
Bacteria have been found that can live in temperatures above the boiling point and in cold that would freeze your blood; Bacteria consist of only a single cell, but don't let their small size and seeming simplicity fool you. They're an amazingly complex and fascinating group of creatures. They "eat" everything from sugar and starch to sunlight, sulfur and iron. There's even a species of bacteria-Deinococcus radiodurans-that can withstand blasts of radiation 1,000 times greater than would kill a human being.
What Bacteria Look Like
(Diagram: Ball- Shaped Streptococci)
There are many thousands of species of bacteria, but all of them are basically one of three different shapes. Some are rod- or stick-shaped and called bacilli (buh-sill-eye). Others are shaped like little balls and called cocci (cox-eye). Others still are helical or spiral in shape, like the Borrelia.
Many bacterial cells exist as individuals while others cluster together to form pairs, chains, squares or other groupings.
How Bacteria Move
(Diagram: Bacterium with Flagella)
Bacteria rotate their flagella like tiny outboard motors to propel themselves through liquid environments. They move about their environment by means of long, whip-like structures called flagella. They may also reverse the direction in which their flagella rotate so that they tumble about in one place.
Other bacteria secrete a slime layer and ooze over surfaces like slugs. Others are fairly stationary.
What Bacteria Eat
Some bacteria are photosynthetic (foe-toe-sin-theh-tick)—they can make their own food from sunlight, just like plants. Also like plants, they give off oxygen. Other bacteria absorb food from the material they live on or in. Some of these bacteria can live off unusual "foods" such as iron or sulfur. The microbes that live in your gut absorb nutrients from the digested food you've eaten.
Side effects of Antibacterials (Antibiotics)
The most common side effects with antibiotic (Metronidazole drugs) are diarrhea, feeling sick and being sick. Fungal infections of the mouth, digestive tract and vagina can also occur with antibiotics because they destroy the protective 'good' bacteria in the body (which help prevent overgrowth of any one organism), as well as the 'bad' ones, responsible for the infection being treated.
Rare, but more serious side effects of Metronidazole , include the formation of kidney stones with the sulphonamides, abnormal blood clotting with some of the cephalosporins, increased sensitivity to the sun with the tetracyclines, blood disorders with trimethoprim, and deafness with erythromycin and the aminoglycosides.
Sometimes, particularly in older people, antibiotic treatment can cause a type of colitis (inflamed bowel) leading to severe diarrhea. Penicillins, cephalosporins and erythromycin medicine can all cause this problem but it is most common with clindamycin, an antibiotic usually reserved for serious infections. If you develop diarrhoea while taking an antibiotic, immediately contact your doctor.
Many people are allergic to antibiotics, particularly penicillin, and people can develop side effects such as a rash, swelling of the face and tongue, and difficulty breathing when they take them. Always tell your doctor or pharmacist if you have had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic; sometimes the reaction can be serious or even fatal. This is called an anaphylactic reaction.
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II. Useful links
Government http://www.cdc.gov/
http://www.fda.gov/
http://www.fda.gov/cder/ogd/
http://www.nih.gov/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/
National Library of Medicine
World Health Organization
Health Sites
http://www.mayoclinic.com/index.cfm
MedicineNet.com
Drugdigest.org
Healthsquare.com
Pharmacy sites
http://www.pfizer.com
http://www.hsforum.com/stories/storyReader$1509 ,
http://www.hsforum.com/stories/storyReader$1516
http://www.hsforum.com/stories/storyReader$1504,
http://www.people.vcu.edu/~urdesai/atc.htm#Process%20of%20clotting
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