History Of Penicillin - First Antibiotic That Changed The World Of Medicine

The discovery of antibiotics has truly brought a huge change to the world of medicine. Generally speaking, when you go to a clinic for a common cold, fever, and cough, the doctor will usually prescribe an antibiotic as one of the medications to the patient.

Some of the most common antibiotics will be penicillin. It is very effective in treating various diseases caused by Staphylococci and Streptococci bacteria. However, not all diseases can be treated with penicillin considering the evolution that took place and the increased in resistance of these bacteria to penicillin.

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The discovery of penicillin has brought new paths in the medical world as more antibiotics were created right after. But did you also know that this penicillin was discovered by accident inside a lab?

Accident That Leads To Finding Penicillin

According to medical history, penicillin was discovered on September 1928 in London. This serendipitous finding of penicillin was credited to Dr. Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist who was working at St. Mary's Hospital, in London.

At that time, his research was about the influenza virus. Dr. Alexander Fleming was also known to be quite careless sometimes. Before he went for a 2 weeks holiday, he forgot to place his petri dish inside the control fridge in his lab.

After getting back from Scotland, he found that the staphylococcus bacteria has been contaminated. There was a layer of fungi on the petri dish and due to his curiosity, he placed the petri dish under a microscope.

He was amazed by the visual as the fungi that were contaminating the virus had prevented the virus from spreading. The layer of fungi was given the name Penicillium notatum which was the first antibiotic to be discovered.

Research of Effectiveness of Penicillin

This accidental discovery clearly left Dr. Alexander Fleming speechless. He then waited for several more weeks to ensure that he had enough Penicillium notatum for his next research. The discovery of this fungus is only a new beginning.

This is because it took doctors more than 10 years to study it before using it widely in the medical field.

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At the early stage, Dr. Alexander Flaming believed that there are several factors on how Penicillium notatum was capable of preventing the spread of bacteria and studied the possibility to be used to fight off infections.

The First Use of Penicillin As Medicine

Even though it was discovered in 1928, the penicillin antibiotic was first used on a patient in March 1942 which was 14 years after the discovery. Anne Miller became the first patient to be treated with penicillin.

At the time, she was on her deathbed in New Have Hospital following an abortion. The abortion caused her to be infected with various bacteria leading to blood poisoning. She was finally saved thanks to the use of penicillin.

Not just that but penicillin also saved many victims during the war. According to records, some of the main causes of death in the First World War will be due to infectious diseases.

By using an antibiotic, the percentage of death caused by pneumonia infection was reduced from 18% in the First World War to merely 1% in the Second World War.

Realizing the potential of antibiotics in the medical field, many US companies were in a race to make the most of it. Between January - May 1942, only 400 million units of penicillin were produced.

But during the World War, these pharmaceutical companies made 650 billion units of penicillin each month.

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