How can treatment for a bacterial infection differ from treatment for a virus?

...: Depends on the bacteria and the virus in question. Bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics are not effective against viral infections. Some viral infections have specific treatment (i.e. The flu, hiv, etc.) while other viruses do not have specific therapy.

See below: Viral infections are usually self limited and are only treated symptomatically. Some like herpes simplex and varicella-zoster are treated with anti-viral drugs like acyclovir. Bacterial infections often require antibacterial antibiotic treatment.