The question of whether Enterofuril is an antibiotic concerns parents first of all. Dysbacteriosis, allergies, suppression of immunity are side effects that this class of drugs is famous for. Moms and dads are afraid to give the antibiotic Enterofuril to children, although it is an effective medicine against intestinal infections.
Antibiotic - the enemy of life
This is the Greek translation of the word: a drug that kills. A disease is an organism’s war against pathogenic bacteria. Antibiotics - a hired army aimed at helping the immune system when it does not cope with the infection.
Determining whether Enterofuril is an antibiotic or not, let's see where the army of antibiotics comes from, how it fights against infectious agents, and what traces it leaves in the body. Then it will become clearer whether Enterofuril belongs to the units of this army.
So different origin
- Parents of antibiotics are living organisms: fungi, bacteria, microbes. During the struggle for existence, they produce substances that can destroy rivals in the living space in which they live. People have learned how to isolate and create drugs that kill pathogenic fauna.In special nutrient media, myriads of beneficial microbes are propagated to obtain a cure from them.
- The answer to the question of whether Enterofuril is an antibiotic or not gives its origin. He has no natural parents. This drug is synthesized in a chemical laboratory, is a derivative of 5-nitrofuran, in the chain of which there are two active elements: the nitro group O 2 N and the free radical capable of various compounds.
First conclusion: Enterofuril does not belong to antibiotics by origin. Any doctor and pharmacologist will confirm this if you contact them with this question.
Main action: suppress and kill
Comparison of therapeutic effects can also clarify the problem. Enterofuril - an antibiotic or not?
- The action of antibiotics is selective, they kill only their rivals in life - bacteria and microbes. Only through the cell walls of their antagonists can they penetrate, disrupt the nucleus, suppress reproduction, and even destroy it. Membranes of the cells of our body are impervious to them, fungi, viruses, and lamblia in the liver are not of interest to them.
- The mechanism of action of Enterofuril, like all drugs of the nitrofuran group, is associated with the presence of nitro group O 2 N in them . This complex requires hydrogen atoms to be completely recovered, which are snatched from the cell membranes of pathogenic microbes. The walls of their cells are broken, pathogens choke and die.
Paired with the nitro group, radicals act in the nitrofuran molecule: they bind nucleic acids, entering into a stable compound with them, the microbe cell loses its ability to reproduce.
A huge number of pathogens living in the intestines are able to bind and deprive breath of Enterofuril. These are staphylococci, streptococci, salmonella, shigella, Klebsiella, cholera bacilli; Giardia in the liver. Viruses, botulism stick and worms elude nitrofurans.
Is antibiotic and antiseptic the same?
Antibiotics and nitrofuran drugs (Enterofuril among them) inhibit the reproduction of pathogenic organisms and kill them. This means that they have a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect. Substances with this action are called antiseptics.
People for whom the words “antibiotic” and “antiseptic” are synonymous may consider Enterofuril to be an antibiotic. The specialist is clear: two classes of these drugs have different mechanisms and spectrum of action. Antibiotics are more effective than Enterofuril against "their" enemies, and he, in turn, neutralizes a greater number of pathogenic microbes.
Treat but not cripple
The last point over i in the question of whether Enterofuril is an antibiotic or not is the nature of the side effects that these drugs have.
- The hired army of antibiotics leaves a painful mark:
- Together with pathogens, it kills beneficial bacteria, pathogenic fungi quickly develop, and as a result, dysbiosis.
- Having penetrated the blood, antibiotics reach the liver, which recognizes them as poisons and begins an exhausting fight with them. The products of this fight poison the liver itself, its recovery lasts weeks and months after the disease.
- The production of interferon, the main hormone of the immune system, is made difficult by the liver, the body's resistance weakens, he refuses to fight the infection, giving the initiative to a foreign army of antibiotics.
- If the immune system does not want to give in to drugs from outside, drug rejection occurs, i.e. allergy.
- And finally, the pathogenic bacteria themselves change rapidly and become insensitive to the action of antibiotics.
2. "Enterofuril" behaves in the body exactly the opposite compared to antibiotics.
- Affecting a much larger number of pathogenic microbes, it is absolutely harmless to beneficial microorganisms - saprophytes, which are orderlies and inhibit the development of fungi and putrefactive bacteria in the intestine.
- Enterofuril does not penetrate into the blood, does not have any negative effect on the liver and all other body systems. Having done his job, he is excreted from the intestines with feces, grabbing the pathogenic fauna.
- This drug not only does not suppress immunity, it even increases the resistance of infection; neutralizes toxins secreted by pathogenic microbes; captures those bacteria that have survived in the fight against antibiotics. Knowing this, specialists often prescribe Enterofuril after antibiotics.
- Sometimes, but very rarely, an allergy to this drug occurs.
It is important to apply correctly
Until the etiology of the intestinal disorder is clarified, the doctor prescribes Enterofuril before using the antibiotic . Instructions for use have their own characteristics:
- Children under 6 years of age are shown to take this drug in the form of a suspension.
- It is very important to take the medicine at regular intervals to ensure its constant concentration in the intestine and not to give the pathogenic bacteria respite.
- Along with other means, "Enterofuril" is not recommended.
- Treatment lasts no longer than a week.
Now we see that the side effects of Enterofuril are minimal. It can be taken even by such categories of patients as pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children.