Today we often take for granted just going to the doctor and getting medicine to fix any illness we may have or pain that we are feeling. There hasn’t always been the privileges that we have today, back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s it wasn’t uncommon for people and children to die from just a minor scratch, pinpricks, scarlet fever, or any minor diseases. Hospitals were full of people with infections spiraling out of control, but there wasn’t anything available for them.
Our soldiers fighting for our freedom were destined to perish due to gangrene and amputations from battle wounds, the conditions were unsanitary and the simple dose of an antibiotic was unheard of. It is hard for our civilization to appreciate the medical advancements we have today due to the invention of penicillin, the medical miracle. Penicillin was considered the miracle cure when it was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928 and it saved several lives including our soldiers but have we abused this medical miracle?
However, it is imperative for our civilization to understand how penicillin was invented, the war it saved, and the resistance that it has sir come. Alexander Fleming was born in Ayshire in the lowlands of southwestern Scotland (Sir Alexander Fleming-Biography). Fleming was obsessed with the body’s fight with infection and he became a professor at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School on September 1, 1928 he taught bacteriology (Saeed). However, Fleming had continued to do research on the bacterium that causes staph infections in the blood stream and was trying to figure out a cure for it (Streble).
Fleming was considered to be quite the “packrat”; he refused to throw anything away. One day, Fleming noticed blue fungal spores growing on one of his unwashed petri dishes (Wilson). Fleming almost destroyed the culture until he realized that all the staph bacteria had been eliminated. September1928 marked the discovery of penicillin; he seized the moment and changed medical history forever. Once Fleming saw the effects of this mould called penicillin, he knew this was something new and promising (Saeed). Fleming then became obsessed with penicillin mould, and even used his friends’ moldy old shoes for samples.
The “accidental” discovery of penicillin landed him and his colleagues the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 (Henry). The discovery of penicillin’s antibacterial action came at just the right time: the onset of World War II. The U. S. government was very adamant after entering World War II for anything that could save our American soldiers and reduce casualties; this made penicillin a main priority (Henry). This new drug made it possible to save an untold number of lives. The availability of penicillin to treat those wounds made the difference in those survival rates.
Due to the fact that penicillin wasn’t being produced by the masses and the production was limited, initial stocks were earmarked for the military only (Henry). This was the very first large-scale human experiment with penicillin and humans, these human trials were conducted in the military field hospitals (Henry). Military personnel were more susceptible to serious infections due to their living conditions. During the war the soldiers lived in close quarters, did not have access to healthy food or clean water, and had very few opportunities to exercise good personal hygiene.
Before penicillin was introduced during World War II, soldiers were just as likely to perish from infections as from battle wounds. Many of our soldier’s relatives didn’t look for their loved ones to come home due to the unsanitary conditions and amputations many of them had to endure due to wounded limbs. The introduction of penicillin was a medical breakthrough; many once-fatal infections could be easily cured and the rates of respiratory diseases among soldiers significantly decreased. There was no longer a need for the surgical opening of a wound or an amputation of a limb because penicillin could treat these conditions.
The military was also equipped with a penicillin dressing, the chance of the soldier’s wounds getting infected was greatly reduced and survival rate greatly increased (Medicine and World War Two). Due to the introduction of penicillin during World War II the majority of our soldiers were able to return home to their families as healthy as they were before they left. World War II was the mightiest struggle mankind has ever seen. It killed more people, cost more money, damaged more property, affected more people, and caused more changes in nearly every country than any other war.
Some researchers say that penicillin was the key top-secret weapon that helped the allies win World War II. At the end of World War II the medical advancements that had been discovered were then made available to the rest of civilization (Medicine and World War II). “If any good can be said to come of war, then the Second World War must go on record as assisting and accelerating one of the greatest blessings that the 20th Century has conferred on Man – the huge advances in medical knowledge and surgical techniques.
War, by producing so many and such appalling casualties, and by creating such widespread conditions in which disease can flourish, confronted the medical profession with an enormous challenge – and the doctors of the world rose to the challenge of the last war magnificently,”- Brian Ford (Medicine and World War Two). With World War II at an end we have now began a whole new war. The war of “bugs vs. drugs,” as Fleming himself stated would happen (Antibiotic Resistance). Fleming stated: “The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops.
Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily under dose himself and, by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug, make them resistant,” (Henry). This statement has held true and now has come to pass, penicillin has saved more lives than any other drug, but the overuse of penicillin has now caused our bodies to become resistant to the medical miracle (Wilson). The first release of penicillin to the public cost several dollars for 100,000 units and the same dose today only costs a few cents (Saeed). This has helped in the overuse in our medical field today.
In today’s society as stated before, people go to the doctor because they aren’t feeling well due to a fever or simply for a runny nose, they are prescribed an antibiotic to suppress their worries, what most call, an easy fix. However, the patient isn’t tested to see if the symptoms are viral or bacterial infections, antibiotics are simply useless to a viral infection, this is what Fleming meant when he stated: “the ignorant man. ” Due to these careless mistakes and the resistance to penicillin, we have now developed what researchers call “superbugs” such as MRSA and C.
difficile which are serious health issues (Wilson). There are now several bacteria that are resistant to penicillin. From 1989 to 1991 the proportion of resistant isolates rose in the U. S. dramatically from 0. 02% to 1. 3% (Criswell). “In 1967 the first penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae was observed in Australia, and seven years later in the U. S. another case of penicillin-resistant S. pneumonia was observed in a patient with pneumococcal meningitis. In 1980 it was estimated that 3-5% of S. pneumonia was penicillin-resistant and by 1998, 34% of the S. pneumonia sampled were resistant to penicillin,” (Criswell).
The resistance that we see today is a worldwide problem; it’s not confined to just one specific area. Antibiotic resistance is now becoming one of the leading causes of death, each year tens of thousands die from this resistance (Antibiotic Resistance). There have been several issues that have caused antibiotic resistance; from improper use of the antibiotic itself all the way down to the meat that we eat, animals that have been treated with penicillin are building a resistance in our immune systems as well (Criswell).
Antibiotic resistance is continually evolving and is a dangerous problem that requires immediate attention as well as future planning to stop a global health crisis. The medical miracle that came and saved thousands of lives, won a war, and cured minor infections is the same one that is working against us today. Due to humanities negligence we are now at war with more than just our “enemies” we are at war with medicine. I believe it is safe to say that our “ignorance” as Fleming called it has become our own worst enemy. It is vital for our world to understand where we have come from and how we have came to where we are today.
If we as people fail to regard the statistics of the resistance to antibiotics then we will virtually be terminating our own existence. This is why it is imperative that our civilization understands how it was invented, the war it saved, and the resistance it has sir come. Works Cited “Antibiotic Resistance. ” Rapid Identification of Antibiotic Resistance. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://www. accelr8. com/print. php? id=54>. Criswell, Ph. D. , Daniel. “The “Evolution” of Antibiotic Resistance. ” The Institute for Creation Research. Web. 30 Sept. 2010. <http://www. icr. org/article/evolution-antibiotic-resistance>.
Henry, Celia. “Chemical & Engineering News: Top Pharmaceuticals: Penicillin. ” ACS Publications – Cookie Absent. Web. 30 Sept. 2010. <http://pubs. acs. org/cen/coverstory/83/8325/8325penicillin. html? print>. “Medicine and World War Two. ” History Learning Site. Web. 30 Sept. 2010. <http://www. historylearningsite. co. uk/medicine_and_world_war_two. htm>. Saeed, Prof Dr. Sheikh Arshad. “Breakthrough: Penicillin? s Impact on Humanity-DAWN Science; November 12, 2005. ” DAWN. COM | Home | Latest News, Pakistan, World, Business, Cricket and Multimedia.
12 Nov. 2005. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://www.dawn. com/weekly/science/archive/051112/science “Sir Alexander Fleming – Biography. ” Nobelprize. org. 1964. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-bio. html>. e6. htm>. Streble, Susan. “The Evolution of Resistance to Penicillin. ” Allegheny College: Webpub. 12 Dec. 2001. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://webpub. allegheny. edu/employee/r/rmumme/FS101/ResearchPapers/SusanStreble. html>. Wilson, Richard. “Penicillin Overuse Puts Fleming’s Legacy at Risk. ” The Sunday Times. 07 Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://www. timesonline. co. uk>.