Table 1.
Common antibiotics used in medical practice with their precise indications.
| AMPICILLIN |
| Bacterial meningitis. Sepsis. Endocarditis caused by enterococcal strains. |
| Gastrointestinal infections by Salmonella. Genito-urinary tract infections. |
| Prophylaxis for rheumatic heart disease or dental procedures, vaginal hysterectomies, or C-sections. Used in pregnant carriers of group B streptococci to prevent early-onset neonatal infections. |
| Respiratory infections. Sinusitis. Otitis media. Gonorrhoea if not resistant to penicillin. |
| Healthcare-associated infections using urinary catheters. Whooping cough to prevent and treat secondary infections. |
| TETRACYCLINE |
| Moderately severe acne and rosacea. |
| Prophylactic treatment for infection by bacillus anthracis. Efficacy against Yersinia pestis of bubonic plague. |
| Treatment and prophylaxis of malaria. Elephantitis filariasis. |
| Treatment of choice for infections caused by chlamydia (trachoma, psittacosis, salpingitis, urethritis, and L. venereum infection), Rickettsia (typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever), brucellosis, and spirochaetal infections (Lyme disease, borreliosis, and syphilis). |
| FLUOROQUINOLONES |
| Genitourinary infections. Treatment of hospital-acquired infections associated with urinary catheters. In community-acquired infections when risk factors for multi-drug resistance are present or after other antibiotic regimens have failed. |
| Acute cases of pyelonephritis or bacterial prostatitis where the patient needs to be hospitalised. |
| Drugs approved for use in children only under narrowly defined circumstances. |
| The “drugs of choice” in patients with sickle-cell disease with osteomyelitis from salmonella due to their ability to enter bone tissue. |
| SULFONAMIDES |
| Brucellosis. Nocardiosis. Ulcus molle. Granuloma inguinale. |
| Typhus. Paratyphoid A and B. Shigellosis. Traveler’s diarrhoea. Kidney and urinary tract infections. Respiratory infections, such as pneumonia and sinusitis, as a second-line drug. |
| AMINOGLYCOSIDES |
| Infections involving aerobic Gram-negative bacteria, such as pseudomonas, acinetobacter, and enterobacter. Some mycobacteria, including the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, are susceptible. |
| Their most frequent use is as “empiric” therapy for serious infections such as sepsis, complicated intra-abdominal infections, complicated urinary tract infections, and nosocomial respiratory tract infections. |
| MACROLIDES |
| Infections due to legionella pneumophila, mycoplasma, mycobacteria, some rickettsia, and chlamydia. |
| Diseases caused by beta-haemolytic streptococci, pneumococci, and staphylococci. |
| METRONIDAZOLE |
| Abdominal, soft tissue, gum, and tooth infections. Vaginal infection by trichomonas vaginitis. Bacterial infection by bacterial vaginosis. |
| Abscesses in the lungs or brain. |
| Protozoal infections, such as amebiasis. Intestinal infections such as giardiasis. Helicobacter p. eradication. |
| CEPHALOSPORINS |
| The different generations are effective against different types of bacteria ranging from skin and soft tissue infections to some respiratory ones, and to serious infections such as meningitis or hospital-acquired pneumonia. |