I
got really sick this past week, and it got me to thinking how times
have changed in terms of medical technology. I mean in ancient
Greece, they used just a handful of medical treatments. Today, there
are about 500 different types of antibiotic available! I was
surprised to be treated with plain old penicillin.
It
got me thinking about how penicillin is such an amazing discovery.
Who would have thought that mold would be one of the medical
industries greatest achievements! It was of course discovered by
Scotsman Alexander Fleming in 1928. His discovery changed the face of
modern medicine. However, he is by no means the first to have used
mold in medical treatment. It is believed that bread infected with
blue mold was used in the treatment of wounds in the Middle Ages.
Leing is the first to use penicillin in it's antibiotic form to treat
infection. He initially dismissed it's worth believing it would not
live in the human body long enough to be effective and he abandoned
research until 1934 when he began clinical trials. Mass production
began in 1945.
Today,
almost 70 years on, Penicillin remains one of the most popular
antibiotics in the western world and it is used to treat all manner
of infections. It certainly helped me feel better although I know if
it was just in my head, but I swear the tablets tasted of mold!
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