Penicillin

• Fleming had been a military doctor in World War one and experienced the frustration and tragedy of men dying from blood poisoning and staphylococcus infections from otherwise minor wounds
• Fleming became determined to find a solution and a cure for these sorts of infections and began working at Saint Mary's Hospital in London researching anti-antibiotics
• Discovery of Penicillin

  Fleming found a mold culture dish with a blot of white mold that appeared to be preventing other mold from growing or even killing it
• Antibiotic

  • Fights bacterial infections
• Fleming identified the penicillium bacterium as an antibiotic medicine
• Fleming tried to make a practical medicine out of the penicillium called penicillin
• Fleming grew cultures of penicillin in tubs in his laboratory but it was difficult to produce enough to make a practical cure
• Penicillin was initially seen as impossible to make and impractical, delaying its introduction by years
• Development of Penicillin

  Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928 led to experiments showing its effectiveness in killing bacteria without harming other cells
• Fleming used penicillin to treat a colleague's eye infection
• Penicillin did not work on deeper infections and took a long time to produce enough for use
• In 1929, Fleming wrote about penicillin in a medical journal but it was not initially considered important
• Fleming wrote about penicillin in a medical journal


  1929
• Nobody thought Fleming's article on penicillin was important
• Fleming had not used penicillin on animals to heal infections, so he had no real evidence of its usefulness
• The mold in Fleming's original petri dish killed bacteria around it but not those further away
• Spores from the mold had floated into Fleming's window and landed in a place where they could have an effect
• Florian Chain's research and trials on penicillin started in 1938
• Howard Flory and Ernst Chain realized the potential effectiveness of penicillin and tried to get funding from the government
• They received 25 pounds for research, which was not a significant amount
• During World War II, the government had other priorities like tanks and Spitfires, so funding for penicillin was limited
• Flory and Chain grew penicillin themselves using hundreds of Hospital bedpans
• In 1941, there was enough penicillin to test on one person, Albert Alexander, who recovered from septicemia
• Penicillin was effective in treating infections and was not harmful to the patient
• Albert Alexander died due to running out of penicillin, despite efforts to extract and reuse it from his urine
• The wartime need for penicillin increased during World War II
• American government realized the potential of penicillin for treating wounded soldiers and provided interest-free loans to U.S companies for its production
• British firms also started mass-producing penicillin
• The American government realized the potential of penicillin for treating wounded soldiers after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and their entry into the Second World War
• Interest-free loans were made to U.S companies to buy the expensive equipment needed for making penicillin
• British firms started mass producing penicillin soon after the U.S, and there was enough to treat all of the Allied wounded on D-Day in 1944 with over 2.3 million doses
• Penicillin could be made into a practical medicine with sufficient investment into the industry
• Lieutenant Colonel Pulvertaft described the first use of penicillin by the British Army


  1943
• Penicillin was used in practice during the Second World War
• After World War II ended in 1945, penicillin began to be manufactured and used by everyone, not just the Armed Forces
• Antibiotics became more common in the 1950s and 1960s, turning from a wonder drug to an ordinary everyday lifesaver
• Two thousand liters of penicillin were needed to treat just one case of infection in June 1943
• 425 million units of penicillin were being produced in June 1943, enough for 170 cases
• Penicillin was developed using a variety of factors including chance, war, governments, science and technology, and individual genius
• Fleming's discovery of penicillin was essentially by chance