Introduction Penicillin (the wonder drug) is an antibiotic from a penicillium mold, which kills off bacteria. This antibiotic works by breaking down cell walls, which make it impossible for the bacteria to live. Human cells are not affected because they do not have cell walls. This drug is very effective for killing bacteria in the body. Penicillin would kill diseases like pneumonia, syphilis, gonorrhea etc. Another thing Penicillin can do is to protect your body from infections.
This is very important in case you get a cut with deadly bacteria in it. History For centuries people have been dying from deadly bacteria. Until penicillin was discovered there was no known form of antibiotic to cure infectious diseases. In 1838 18, 000 English and Welsh people died from pneumonia (a treatable disease 100 years later), which is caused by infection by deadly bacteria.
Many scientist were trying to find a pill you could swallow that killed bacteria. It wasn’t until 1928 that an antibiotic was found; when a scientist noticed that a mold on a plate had made bacteria stop growing. The best part of this mystery mold is that it also kills bacteria too. The scientist then turned the mold into mold juice and called it penicillin, after the mold’s name penicillium. The discoverer of the antibiotic was a Scottish man by the name of Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) who was a scientist who also discovered other drugs. In 1939 he was forced to stop research on penicillin.
Two smart scientists, Howard Florey and Ernest Chain took over. These two men made it safe for humans to swallow it. They also made it easier to make. In 1945 Howard, Ernest, and Alex all won the Noble medicine prize. Effects of Drug The effect of penicillin has been very large throughout the last sixty years. Even today penicillin is widely used throughout our community.
Pretty much all of the outcomes of penicillin have been very positive. Probably the most obvious and biggest advantage from this antibiotic is the amount of people saved. Just think of how many people would have been killed from diseases like syphilis, pneumonia, and gonorrhea. Unlike most discoveries or inventions in the industrial revolution penicillin did not change the people lives that much. Yes, it would make people live longer and would cause less trips to the hospital, but people wouldn’t move from their farms or move to a different cities because of penicillin.
Another excellent result of the wonder drug was it did not take away jobs like most inventions. It produced jobs. For example, several jobs that may have been created from penicillin would be working at the fermentation plan, selling penicillin, or modifying the antibiotic to make it more efficient. Future Problems One of the problems with penicillin and other newer antibiotics is that bacteria are becoming resistant to them because too many people use them improperly and too much. Biotechnology companies and scientists are trying to find new antibiotics that kill resistant organisms. This is proving very hard to do..