# Viruses (Viri?) why so difficult? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 16, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viruses-viri-why-so-difficult/207770 "2003-10-16T12:54:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viruses-viri-why-so-difficult/207770/21 "2003-10-17T15:05:52Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\* I do have a question for **Qadgop** : If you cannot meaningfully classify antibiotics by strength, how do you account for the existence of certain antibiotics which both kill strains resistant to a variety of other antibiotics and cause fairly severe side effects in the user? I’m referring to the IV Vancomycin mentioned by **USCDiver** and **Dogface** , which seems to have side effects orders of magnitude more severe than anything I’ve used. So, are side effects truly unrelated to how effective the antibiotic is?_\* I just have a quibble with the term “strength” when applied to antibiotics. It comes to me thru Dr. John Bartlett, who tried to teach me about infectious disease back in my med student days. He always cautioned us about not using terms like “you need a stronger antibiotic”. So many patients ask for the strongest antibiotic available. I ask them if they would use a sledge hammer to drive carpet tacks. In place of strength (which to me means the dose of the drug in milligrams) I prefer to to think of meds like Vancomycin as very broad spectrum antibiotics, with a lot of potential toxicities and side-effects. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viruses-viri-why-so-difficult/207770/22 "2003-10-17T23:27:34Z")
Ah, I think I understand it now, **Qadgop**. Thanks. 🙂 So, to sum it up and see if I do understand: A drug can be broad-spectrum and broadly effective against severely mutated strains at the expense of being more broadly toxic (potentially), or it can be more focused, less effective against the bizarre mutants, but less likely to make you throw up (among other things). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viruses-viri-why-so-difficult/207770/23 "2003-10-17T23:51:25Z")
Sort of, but not always, **Derleth**. You also have very many narrow-spectrum drugs which are toxic, and some fairly broad spectrum ones are pretty benign. There’s some correlation between breadth of spectrum and greater toxicity but it’s not real linear. Of course, the most effective treatment to eradicate all bacteria and viruses from an individual is to throw the individual in a furnace. Very broad spectrum in virtually all circumstances, with a very high rate of undesirable side-effects! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viruses-viri-why-so-difficult/207770/24 "2003-10-18T00:23:42Z")
Ok. I’m not very surprised it’s more complex than I know. I’m just glad the complexity is getting out here into the open. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/viruses-viri-why-so-difficult/207770.md?page=1)