Why is it ineffective to treat viral disease with antibiotics? Why is it ineffective to treat viral disease with antibiotics? Pathogenic RNA viruses have a high rate of mutation, producing new genetic varieties that are insensitive to antibiotic treatment. Due to excessive antibiotic use, most viruses have evolved to be resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotics inhibit enzymes specific to bacteria and have no effect on virally encoded enzymes.

Antibiotics inhibit enzymes specific to bacteria and have no effect on virally encoded enzymes

Explanation:

The specificity of the antibiotics to inhibits some bacterial enzymes is one of the major reasons why antibiotic do not affect viruses. In addition antibiotics are designed to have a significant destructive effects on the mechanisms of biochemical reactions in bacteria and its physiology, e, g on the cells walls, (inhibiting the formation of peptydoglycans) on certain organelles e, g ribisomes (inhibiting protein synthesis) and on the DNA (disrupting replication). The virus physiology is different from bacteria, therefore the design of antibiotics will nor affect these same mechanisms in viruses, thus no specificity for the antibiotic to act on in virus

Antibiotics inhibit enzymes specific to bacteria and have no effect on virally encoded enzymes

Explanation:

Viruses can be inhibited by different approaches depending on the type of virus (viruses are classified into DNA or RNA viruses, single or double-stranded viruses, etc).

One of the most commonly used techniques to protect against viral infections is by vaccination