ANTIBIOTICS

The topic of antibiotics has become very popular nowadays.
Some questions are also asked in non-medical journals and crop up more and more frequently in radio and TV programmes (e.g. "What are bacteria and infections? What are antibiotics and which infections do they treat? When and for how long should they be taken? Are they safe for humans? What is antibiotic-resistance etc.).
Menarini mostly concerns itself with antibiotics acting against bacteria resistant to other antibiotics.At the same time it is engaged on national and international levels in educational scientific meetings and work-groups on antibiotic-resistance. These meetings involve collaboration on European Epidemiological Surveillance and the setting-up of a committee which is specifically devoted to the study of the problem. It is made up of the European Medicinal Evaluation Association (EMEA) and other experts from universities and other institution and scientific societies.

• Antiviral Therapy

In order to survive and replicate, viruses must parasite a living cell and use its replicating systems.
Antiviral drugs must block viral replication without damaging the host cell, distinguishing the replication processes of the virus from that of the host cell. Menarini & rsquo;s research has recently made an innovative antiviral drug available to the medical class for the treatment of Herpes Zoster.

• What is an antibiotic?

Antibiotics act selectively against bacteria by interfering with their vital mechanisms (bacterial wall, protein synthesis, etc.) and kill the bacteria or block their proliferation. In this way, antibiotics help the immune system (antibodies, etc.) to heal the infected organism. The most commonly used antibiotics kill bacteria by acting on their external and internal structures. Human cells either do not have such structures or they differ from them and therefore are not damaged by the antibiotics.

• The correct use of Antibiotics

Menarini pays much attention to the correct use of antibiotics and to the problem of bacteria that "learn" to "defeat" the antibiotic the patient is taking ("antibiotic resistance" or "bacterial resistance to antibiotics"). Bacteria that survive an antibiotic can "teach" their "children" to recognize an antibiotic and to resist it. This is one of the main reasons why antibiotics are to be taken only in case of real necessity according to the clinical opinion of the physician and carefully following methods, timing and duration of the prescribed treatment.