How long do antibiotics take to start working?

Meaning of antibiotics

“Anti” means “against” and “biotics” means “life forms” say bacteria.

Types of antibiotics

There are more than 100 types of antibiotics like penicillin, cephalosporin, erythromycin, etc. The antibiotics act on Staphylococcus, Staphylobacillus, Streptococcus, Streptobacillus, Escherichia coli, etc. to name a few.

The bacteria can be either Gram-positive or Gram-negative in nature depending on the Gram reaction.

Based on the bacteria that they act on, there are two types of antibiotics. They are:

1. Broad-spectrum antibiotics

They work on many varieties of disease-causing bacteria, say a broad or wide range of diseases. Example: Gentamicin, which acts against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.

2. Narrow spectrum antibiotics

This type of antibiotic actually works and targets a specific group of bacteria, say for example penicillin, which actually attacks and sabotages the cell wall of the microbe.

How it works

The antibiotic either kills the particular bad disease causing bacteria present in the body or inhibits the further growth or multiplication of the microorganisms. Slowly our immune system takes over and brings everything under control thus curing us off the infection.

Working time

Mostly there will be an immediate relief to the person in a matter of one or two days as soon as the antibiotic starts to work on the bacterial infection.

But in the case of bigger deadly diseases like tuberculosis, the treatment of taking antibiotic tablets would range from 4 months to even a year, but the symptoms like acute coughing would slowly diminish in a matter of less than a month or so.

Therefore, the working time actually depends on the type and the severity of the infection, the duration of the course of the drug, etc.