Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about antibiotics.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash antibiotics

or in the Infectious Diseases section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Antibiotics are used to treat infections caused by bacteria and they work in various ways.

Bacteriostatic antibiotics stop or slow the reproduction and growth of the bacteria

and bactericidal antibiotics kill the bacteria directly. Overuse or inappropriate use can lead to antibiotic resistance

and limited treatment options for infections.

Let's talk in more detail about local resistance and local guidelines.

Bacteria in different populations in different areas of the country develop resistance to different

antibiotics. For example, the E. coli in one area of the country might be particularly resistant to

trimetoprim, whilst in another area of the country there might be low levels of trimethympathrim

resistance. Therefore, it's necessary to have local policies that guide what antibiotics to use in different

scenarios.

A tom tip for you, in your OSCEs, questions about treating infections can always be answered with

antibiotics according to the local antibiotic policy, even if you have no idea what the usual

choice would be.

Let's go through the antibiotics that work by inhibiting cell wall synthesis.

Antibartics that inhibit cell wall synthesis can be categorized into those that have a beta

lactam ring and those that do not have a beta-lactam ring. Those that do have a

beta-lactam ring include penicillins, kephalosporins, and carbapenams, such as meripenem. Those that do

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