Question: What is it that makes diseases caused by viruses and bacteria hard to treat?

anon answered on 6 Nov 2017:

Well viruses and bacteria are quite different – bacteria are single celled microoganisms that can be good or bad for you. Viruses are much smaller, simpler organisms that survive only by invading other creatures cells and using them to multiply. With both bacterial and viral infections your body’s immune system can usually manage to kill the invading bacteria or virus before you even get ill.

If that hasn’t worked, bacteria can can be treated medicines called antibiotics, which are very effective at killing bacteria.

Viruses are not so easily treated, and antibiotics don’t kill them, though some other medicines do.

Its important not to use antibiotics unnecessarily, for instance when you have virus like flu, rather than a bacterial infection. This is because over time, bacteria have become more resistant to antibiotic drugs, making some bacterial infections harder to treat.