For example, beavers are considered as a reservoir for Giardia. The primary defenses against infectious disease transmission are oriented towards the aforementioned modes of transmission. Unfortunately, protective measures do little if they are not employed. From a care giver perspective, the single most important disease protection activity is frequent hand washing. Antibiotics Antibiotics are a group of chemicals that act upon bacteria in one of two ways.
Bacteriostatic agents prevent the target organism from reproducing.
This facilitates the body's own defense mechanisms to destroy the invading bacteria. Bacteriocidal agents act directly upon the target bacteria and destroy them. As can be surmised, in the case of critical or potentially critical infections, the bacteriostatic agents are the desirable choice. However, there are some bacteria that are more susceptible to bacteriostatic agents even though they can cause significant disease. Antibiotics are classified by chemical family.