Antibiotics

Imagine dying from a small cut sustained while working in your garden, or not being able to get a routine type of surgery because the risk of infection was so high. That was the world everyone lived in before modern antibiotics.

Though some ancient peoples knew of molds and other foods that contained some anti-bacterial properties, an effective medicine was not known until the 20th Century. Controlled attempts to isolate a cure for bacterial infections began as far back as the 1600s, but even mildly successful medicines were toxic and led to serious side effects. A much better antibiotic known today as penicillin with far more effective results was discover in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming, and is considered by many to the beginning of the modern era of antibiotics.

As with many of our most important discoveries, the long road to developing penicillin began purely as a mistake. After returning from a summer vacation, Dr. Fleming found odd patterns on some petri dishes he absent-mindedly set near a window before he left. Upon closer examination, he realized the growth of potentially deadly bacteria was stopped in the areas where a type of mold was accidentally introduced. Excited by this discovery, Dr. Fleming and others started to experiment with the mold over the next 12 years.

By 1940, a pair of researchers heard of a man who nicked his face while working in his rose garden. From such a simple injury, he developed a serious infection. After receiving permission to administer their medicine the man began to recover, but soon fell ill because the researchers ran out of penicillin, which at the time was very hard to produce in useful quantities. However, new methods soon yielded enough penicillin to cure a variety of infections and became critical to Allied War efforts during WWII, saving the lives of thousands of American soldiers.

Today we have dozens of powerful and effective antibiotics which not only save millions of people from serious infections every year, but also allow modern medical procedures such as skin grafts, organ transplants, and many other developments that would not otherwise be possible. Because of the advent of antibiotics, we all lead much longer and secure lives.