Can antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria?

A: No, antibiotics can only kill bacteria, not viruses.

Why aren’t antibiotics antiviral? Because viruses have no cell wall, they are a class of tiny, non-cellular microorganisms that contain a single nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) type and must host and replicate in living cells. There are four mechanisms of bactericidal action of antibiotics: inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis, interaction with cell membrane, interference with protein synthesis and inhibition of nucleic acid transcription and replication. In layman’s terms, antibiotics are drugs used to treat various bacterial infections or to suppress infections by disease-causing organisms.