8 Medical Technologies: Penicillin

8.1 Introduction

One of the most important medical innovations in recent history took place in the 1940s, when the silent generation was still growing up. Although it began as simple experiments done on an ordinary species of mold, penicillin’s antibiotic properties set it apart from many medicines of the time. Penicillin was popularized and began to be accepted in the 1940s and the 1950s, leading to a new type of medicine known as antibiotics. An antibiotic is a type of medicine used to treat bacterial infections, which is an infection caused by foreign bacteria growing in your body. This new type of medicine allowed doctors to treat infections and diseases that used to be seen as untreatable, which obviously had large effects on people’s everyday lives.

Penicillin had an incredible impact on society, saving countless lives and revolutionizing the medical industry. People saw bacterial infections in a different, much less frightening light. Most notably, penicillin saved the lives of many soldiers in World War II because it was portable and could be used to treat many different diseases. Overall, the invention and widespread use of penicillin has caused long lasting positive effects on the medical industry and society as a whole, including the control of infectious diseases which has saved countless lives.

8.2 What is Penicillin

Although it may seem like too simple of an explanation, penicillin is just mold. All of penicillin’s life-saving properties and incredible benefits come from the mold. To make the penicillin that we actually use, scientists extract the mold from its environment and purify it, so that its effects are more targeted and effective.

“Penicillin”  by Centre for Research Collections University of Edinburgh  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

When it was designed for soldiers to use in World War II, penicillin took the form of a powder and a liquid. Surgeons and field medics would put the powder in the soldier’s wounds and prescribe liquid injections while the soldiers recovered, to ensure there was no infection. This treatment was incredibly effective, so much so in fact that the survival rate went from 4% in World War I to 50% in World War II due to the use of penicillin (Britannica 2021). Years later, penicillin was made into tablets which made it much more effective in everyday life. Doctors were able to prescribe penicillin to treat infections in a simple and effective way.

As time has passed, scientists discovered newer, more efficient ways to produce penicillin. Because of this, the exact definition of penicillin is not entirely clear. Penicillin has been genetically engineered to become easier to manufacture and mass produce. This means that penicillin’s DNA has been modified so that it has different properties than it naturally does. In modern times, the term penicillin can refer to a number of different antibiotics that have the same core chemistry as penicillin does but still provides similar antibiotic benefits.

8.3 History of Penicillin

When Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, it was actually an accident. Fleming was studying different bacteria, but a mold contaminated one of his experiments. He noticed that the bacteria was being killed by the mold, which sparked interest in the mold. He studied the mold for several years, and found that it was effective against certain types of bacteria, such as those that cause meningitis and pneumonia. In 1931, Fleming stopped his research on penicillin .

In 1940, Howard Florey and Ernest Chain, two scientists at Oxford University picked up where Fleming left off. They were more qualified and had more equipment than Fleming, and as a result made more progress in researching penicillin. The biggest breakthrough they made in their research was discovering a new species of mold that yielded 200 times as much penicillin as the species they had previously been working with. This enabled them to start producing penicillin much more efficiently. Around 1939, they tested penicillin on rodents. They infected a sample of rodents with a bacteria, but gave half of them penicillin. It proved to be effective, and the stage was set for penicillin to begin use on people. They tested on a few people at this point, but penicillin’s incredible capabilities were proved through its use in World War II.

Funded by a wartime economy, penicillin production in both America and Britain increased significantly during World War II. Although penicillin was very effective in the war, it was still naturally grown. Typically, drugs and medications used to treat people are synthesized in laboratories. This means that they are made from different elements instead of being grown. Synthesized products are more reliable to create and are also more consistent. Penicillin’s structure was discovered in 1945, and was later synthesized using this information in 1957. This is how penicillin is made today.

“Penicillin Bioreactor” by Matt Brown is licensed under CC BY 2.0

8.4 Penicillin’s Impact on Society

Penicillin’s effects on society were swift and noticeable. Bacterial infections can result from any open wound, so they are common problems that people have to go to the hospital for. Before penicillin, a simple bacterial infection could result in death, even with medical attention. Once penicillin was available in hospitals, these infections no longer posed as serious of a threat, and many people’s lives were saved. Apart from rare penicillin allergies exhibited by about 1% of people treated, penicillin was a miraculous new medicine with few negative effects.

Penicillin saves soldiers’ lives!” by National Archives and Records Administration is in the Public Domain

The more interesting effects of penicillin are just now surfacing in the form of resistant strains of bacteria referred to as antimicrobial resistance. This refers to any strain of bacteria, fungi or virus that has developed resistance to the treatment typically used to kill these microbes. The Tripartite Collaboration, which is made up of the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health, has stated that antimicrobial resistance is one of the largest threats to global health. This is an effect of penicillin that no one in the 1940s or 1950s could have predicted. This situation may sound bad, but there is a solution currently being tested and implemented. It has been shown that reducing antibiotic use on food products and even people when necessary will help with this issue, however this restraint isn’t currently being implemented. If a strain of bacteria typically controlled by penicillin becomes resistant, it could cause major problems for our current health systems.

Chapter Summary

Penicillin is one of the most influential discoveries in the medical field in recent history. It provided a cure for some infections and diseases which were previously thought to be untreatable. Penicillin had a period of very rapid research and improvement because of World War II, and as a result, saved many many lives. After much research and improvement, penicillin can be synthesized relatively easily and reliably, making it a staple in fighting common bacterial infections.

References

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