Many textbooks and papers do not show an obvious line between these expressions. Your contributions, please
As I feel while reading many pharmacology books- Antimicrobial-includes agents acting against bacteria,virus,parasites,fungus etc. Antibiotics includes agents acting against biological causative agents.Antibacterials-includes agents acting against bacteria.
Antibiotics are used to kill microbes (literally ‘life’)
Antimicrobials are used to kill or prevent further growth of microbes,
antibacterials are used to kill or prevent further growth bacteria,
antivirals are used to treat viral infections,
antifungal are used to kill or prevent further growth of fungi
and antiparasitic act against parasites
Note: viruses are not living organisms, Antibiotics will have no effect! (in fact generally the term antibiotics is used for substances that (only) have a antibacterial effect.
Dear Ali,
An antimicrobial is an agent that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth. Antimicrobial medicines can be grouped according to the microorganisms they act primarily against. For example, antibiotics are used against bacteria and antifungals are used against fungi. They can also be classified according to their function. Agents that kill microbes are called microbicidal, while those that merely inhibit their growth are called biostatic. The use of antimicrobial medicines to treat infection is known as antimicrobial chemotherapy, while the use of antimicrobial medicines to prevent infection is known as antimicrobial prophylaxis. The main classes of antimicrobial agents are disinfectants, which kill a wide range of microbes on non-living surfaces to prevent the spread of illness, antiseptics, and antibiotics (which destroy microorganisms within the body). The term "antibiotic" originally described only those formulations derived from living organisms but is now also applied to synthetic antimicrobials, such as the sulphonamides, orfluoroquinolones. The term also used to be restricted to antibacterials, but its context has broadened to include all antimicrobials. Antibacterial agents can be further subdivided into bactericidal agents, which kill bacteria, and bacteriostatic agents, which slow down or stall bacterial growth.
"Antimicrobial". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-02.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial
Hoping this will be helpful,
Rafik
I agree with Rafik Karaman - comprehehsive comments on the matter
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