If alcohol is so effective at killing bacteria/viruses, why isn’t it used more often in medication?

Question

I got quite good answers. thanks to everyone for participating.

In: 2573

Answer 1

Something I’d like to add because I just learned this recently myself, [70% alcohol is a better disinfectant than 91% alcohol.](https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/disinfection-methods/chemical.html) Though the link provided doesn’t really explain why, the way I understand it is the higher water content of the lower percentage gives a chance for the alcohol to be absorbed into the cell walls of bacteria to destroy it. The higher percentage basically hits it so hard that it reacts by stopping fluid intake through the cell walls.