Week 8 safe assign copy assgn.docx - Antimicrobial Agents...

Antimicrobial Agents
Antimicrobial agents are medications used to kill or prevent the growth of microbes.
There are numerous types of infections that patients may present with; therefore, it is essential
for practitioners to be able to assess the underlying cause of the infections and identify the proper
agent of choice to treat the infection. Many factors must be considered when determining the
proper drug for treatment including the causative agent, efficacy of treatment, cost, toxicity and
pharmacokinetics (Arcangelo, Peterson, Wilbur, & Reinhold, 2017). The purpose of this paper is
to discuss the categories of antimicrobial agents, explain the differences between viral and
bacterial infections, and discuss how proper identification of viral and bacterial agents is
essential to selecting the proper antimicrobial agent to treat infections.
Antimicrobial Agents
Antimicrobial agents are placed into categories according to what type of microorganism
they act against (Laureate Education, Inc, 2012). The different categories of antimicrobials are
the antibiotics, antifungals, antiprotozoals, antivirals, and antimycobacterial agents, which will
be discussed below (Chung et al., 2016).
Cell Wall Synthesis Inhibitors
Cell wall synthesis inhibitors are a class of antibiotics that work by inhibiting or
interfering with the cell wall synthesis of the target bacteria (Sarkar, Yarlagadda, Ghosh, &
Haldar, 2017). This class of medications is historically one of the most effective and extensively
used classes of antibiotics (Sarkar et al., 2017). Antibiotics within this group of medications
include the penicillins, cephalosporins, vancomycin, beta-lactamase inhibitors, carbapenems,
aztreonam, polymycin, and bacitracin (Sarkar et al., 2017). Cephalosporins are one of the most
commonly prescribed group of cell wall synthesis inhibitors. They belong to the beta-lactam

group of antibiotics (Arcangelo et al., 2017). Cephalosporins disrupt the synthesis of the
peptidoglycan layer of bacterial cell wall (Chung et al., 2016). Cephalosporins are categorized
by generation. There are four generations of cephalosporins. The newer generations of
cephalosporins have greater gram-negative antimicrobial effectiveness than the generation before
(Sarkar et al., 2017). Cephalosporins are generally absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract
(Arcangelo et al., 2017). Cephalosporins are used to treat a wide variety or conditions, including