Antimicrobial chemotherapy is the clinical application of agents to treat infectious disease. There are four types of antimicrobial chemotherapy:
Antimicrobial chemotherapy should not be confused with oncological chemotherapy. The word chemotherapy originally meant the use of any chemical agents to treat disease. Traditionally and in specifically microbiological contexts, the word chemotherapy has often been used without a modifier, but today the antimicrobial treatment is often referred to as antimicrobial chemotherapy to avoid confusion with the cancer treatment. Paul Ehrlich is commonly considered the founder of antimicrobial chemotherapy.