Some antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections kill the bacteria by chemically punching holes in the cell wall of the bacteria, by preventing the bacteria from replicating their DNA, or by many other actions that ultimately cause cell death. Why do these antibiotics not work to kill viruses and cure people of viral infections?
a. Antibiotics cannot kill a virus because viruses are not living cells with cell walls to puncture, nor do they have their own organelles to replicate DNA.
b. Viruses are just too virulent to be killed by those antibiotics.
c. Viruses are too quick for the antibiotics to work.
d. Viruses mutate at a rate faster than the rate at which antibiotics can work to kill them.
Ans: a. Antibiotics cannot kill a virus because viruses are not living cells with cell walls to puncture, nor do they have their own organelles to replicate DNA.
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