Penicillin was first noticed in 1896, by Ernest Duchesne. Thirty-two years later Alexander Fleming noticed it as well, when he was working at St. Mary’s Hospital which is located in London. He observed that when bacteria had become contaminated by, Penicillium fungi, the bacteria nearest to the mold had started to die. In 1929, he named the substance Penicillin and he released his observations he had done through his investigations. He thought that maybe his investigations could be beneficial if they produced the mold in bulk amounts. Fleming gave up on the idea after 1931, but started to do more trials in 1934. In 1939, Dr. Howard Florey began in-depth research on penicillin. Since the war with Germany depleted their resources, they requested help from the United States. In 1943, they did trials with the penicillin and it proved to be the most effective antibacterial agent to date.
Before penicillin, they didn’t have sufficient treatment for infections like pneumonia, Lyme disease, typhoid fever, gangrene, chlamydia, or leptospirosis. At the start of World War II, they didn’t have penicillin. Therefore if somebody falls and, bacteria from the dirt gets inside their wound, and infects it they will probably die because they can’t cure the infection. Before, there were some antibiotics that could help with diseases but couldn’t get rid of them completely. People had a shorter lifespan before the discovery of penicillin. For a while bacterial infections were the main cause of death in the human race. People died from syphilis, gonorrhea, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and even childbirth because they didn’t have a good enough antibiotic. You could also die from surgical infections, so you could’ve already been sick and very il...
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...d to help because they didn’t have enough resources to test out enough trials. The production of penicillin really took off and became very successful. Penicillin still has the same effect as it did twenty to thirty years ago. It works very effectively and helps people out every single day. I believe penicillin will eventually one day be in one of those situations where every infection is resistant to it because people abuse the antibiotic for other things that do not necessarily need antibiotics. Plus more and more superbugs and pan-resistant infections are being made and none of them will be able to use the penicillin or antibiotics. Overall penicillin is an incredible drug and has become very prosperous and will hopefully last a pretty long time, but if it doesn’t there are always new discoveries to come up with and make the medical world even better than before.
The Factor of War in the Development of Penicillin The discovery, development and subsequent use of penicillin can be considered to be one of the most important breakthroughs in medical history. There were many factors, which were involved in the development of penicillin, and it could be argued that war was the most important, but other factors were also responsible. Alexander Fleming was working in London as a bacteriologist in 1928 when he noticed that a growth of a mould called penicillin produced a substance that actually killed the germs he was working on. He realised that this might be very important and a year later he wrote an article about his findings. However, Fleming did not have the facilities or the support to develop and test his idea that penicillin could fight infection, and he didn't develop it further.
Adegoke AA, Tom M, Okoh AI, Jacob S (2010) Studies on multiple antibiotic resistant bacterial isolated from surgical site infection. Scient Res. Essays 5:3876-81.
Soldiers faced diseases like measles, small pox, malaria, pneumonia, camp itch, mumps, typhoid and dysentery. However, diarrhea killed more soldiers than any other illness. There were many reasons that diseases were so common for the causes of death for soldiers. Reasons include the fact that there were poor physicals before entering the army, ignorance of medical information, lack of camp hygiene, insects that carried disease, lack of clothing and shoes, troops were crowded and in close quarters and inadequate food and water.
Years later other scientists were also intrigued by the possibilities of penicillin and produced enough penicillin to prove that it was a useable antibiotic. The scientists from Great Britain were developing all of this during World War II, and unfortunately funding for their drug was unavailable due to the war. They decided to bring their concepts to the United States, and once enough was made, it was eventually used, to treat wounded soldiers during World War I.
18). Even though those diseases were not his goal to cure it still made penicillin revolutionary for the time being. Fleming now knew how to make penicillin and started to mass produce it. In the 1930s during the upgrading process of penicillin Fleming himself was cured of severe conjunctivitis. Then in the 1940s the fully developed penicillin was created. The creation of penicillin cured a wide variety of diseases, which led to the world excelling in growth, and penicillin improved the way of medicine at the time. The variety of diseases cured by penicillin made it a must have antibiotic. Penicillin was used to cure multiple diseases including syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, gangrene, pneumonia, diphtheria, and scarlet fever ( Common Antibiotics ). All the diseases have one thing in common, they all have the ability to spread, some faster than others. When a disease is discovered people tried to make a cure. When penicillin was made diseases that were thought to never have a cure were cured. People began to demand that penicillin be sold in local pharmacies. Penicillin was released to help people with the variety of diseases curable by
Norman Heatley and Howard Florey went to America to figure it out, luckily they were able to find a gold colored mold that was two-hundred percent more effective. In World War I, pneumonia was eighteen percent of the reason for soldiers’ deaths; with the use of penicillin, in World War II pneumonia was responsible for only one percent of all deaths. Without this miracle drug, millions of people would have died from pneumonia in not only World War II but also civilians today. Penicillin changed the way infections were treated, landing it the number five spot in the top ten greatest inventions
Throughout history disease has run rampant taking many lives with every passing day. Finding a cure or even just a tool in the battle has been the main focus of scientist throughout time. This focus is what brought us the discovery of antibiotics. Over the years antibiotics have been misused by patients, over prescribed by physicians and have led to resistant strains of bacteria.
Penicillin is an antibiotic that kills bacteria, sufficiently treating any injuries. This drug was invented before the war, but had its major outbreak during World War II. Once scientists discovered the potential of penicillin, they aggressively started to pursue methods to mass produce the drug. The mass production of penicillin saved many American lives and led to our victory during World War II.
Discovery and Development of Penicillin. (2014, April 4). Retrieved from American Chemical Society International Historic Chemical Landmarks: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html
In the early twentieth century, an incidental discovery led to one of the greatest medical advancements in medicine. This accidental discovery rivals any intentional successful medical discovery in terms of lives saved. The development of penicillin is still important today as it was many years ago while science continues to alter new types and strands to battle the ever changing and newly discovered diseases of the world.
Alexander Fleming started the history of antibiotics in the 1920's with his discovery of penicillin.When penicillin was first discovered and used widely, it was touted as a wonder drug, and consequently was used as one.Though not necessarily harmful to the patient penicillin was used for much more infections than it was able to combat.Today the same practice is observed in the medical profession, however at this point it is due more to the detriment of an uneducated public.Studies have been carried out that show the huge over usage of antibiotics.In the seventies Soyka et al, concluded, "60% of physicians surveyed gave antibiotics for the treatment of the common cold."[3], and by common knowledge the common cold is a virus, something that cannot be treated by an antibiotic.Nyquist
The emergence of Penicillin marked the dawn of the antibiotic era and allowed for diseases which normally ended in death or dysfunction to be eliminated and for people to carry on living healthy lives. It is estimated that 90% of children who had meningitis of the bacterial kind in the pre-antibiotic era would either die or survive the illness with a physical impairment. Strep throat, whooping cough, tuberculosis and pneumonia are among some of the other fatal bacterial diseases which would usually result in a fatality. Antibiotics decreased the mortality rates, and so new antibiotics were formed.
Medicine today is required for almost anything, from a simple cold, to a fever, to something more serious such as recovering from a surgery. Antibiotics have become mainstream objects that are taken for granted, yet there was a point in time where medicine was not as accessible or numerous as it is now. An extremely effective medicine that is used widely today but did not exist until somewhat recently is penicillin. It kills bacteria and fights off infections, clearing the body of any diseases that it might have. The medicine now known as penicillin had a purely accidental discovery, and its use is to prevent any bacteria from spreading.
Penicillin: discovered by Alexander Fleming, helps treat a wide spectrum of infections that could potentially harm you. When penicillin was discovered, doctors finally had something that would completely cure their patients. Upon examining some colonies of Staphylococcus Aureus, Alexander Fleming noticed that a mold called Penicillium Notatum had grown in his petri dishes while he was on vacation. When Fleming put the dishes under the microscope, he found that the mold had stopped the growth of the Staphylococci. Fleming took a while longer to grow more of the mold to prove his findings he found that the mold inhabited the growth of bacteria, and that it could be used to fight infectious diseases. Alexander Fleming did not, however have the
Penicillin has always been known to be one of the most widely uses of medication. Although it is known to be an allergy factor to some people, many doctors use it on patients to treat fevers, pneumonia, ad ear, skin, and throat infections. But how did it become so widely known? Penicillin was first recognized in 1896, by Ernest Du chesne. A few years later, it was re-discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming. He observed that when the bacteria had been contaminated with, the mold had started to die. He later named the substance Penicillin and from that point on, it took off.In 1939, Dr. Howard Florey began some research on penicillin. One of the main reason as to how the medication took off is because of the war. The war with Germany made