Antimicrobials are substances that kill or stop the growth of microorganisms.

• Antimicrobial drugs can be put into groups based on the microorganisms they work best against.
• Antibiotics, for example, are used to kill bacteria, and antifungals are used to kill fungi.
• They can also be put into groups based on what they do. Agents that kill microbes are microbicides, while those that merely inhibit their growth are called bacteriostatic agents.
• Antimicrobial chemotherapy is the use of antimicrobial medicines to treat infections, while antimicrobial prophylaxis is the use of antimicrobial medicines to prevent infections.
• The three main types of antimicrobial agents are disinfectants (non-selective agents like bleach), which kill a wide range of microbes on non-living surfaces to stop the spread of illness, antiseptics (which are used on living tissue to reduce infection during surgery), and antibiotics (which destroy microorganisms within the body).
• The word “antibiotic” used to only refer to medicines made from living microorganisms, but it is now also used to describe man-made medicines like sulfonamides and fluoroquinolones.
• Used to only refer to antibacterials, the term is now used to mean all antimicrobials. It is often used as a synonym for antibacterials by medical professionals and in medical literature.
• Antibacterial agents can be further broken down into bactericidal agents, which kill bacteria, and bacteriostatic agents, which slow or stop the growth of bacteria.
• In response, more progress in antimicrobial technologies has led to solutions that can do more than just stop the growth of microbes. Instead, porous media have been made that kill microbes as soon as they touch them.