Penicillin, the first anti-biotic, was initially discovered by Joseph Lister, a British surgeon famous for promoting the idea of antiseptic surgery. He noticed that the mould, penicillium killed bacteria and in 1884 he successfully treated a nurse with an infection. However, the surgeon never used this again and Alexander Fleming, who you probably associate with the anti-biotic, was the second one to notice that this fungus was incredibly effective at killing bacteria in 1928, some fifty years after Joseph Lister noticed penicillium’s potential. Fleming conducted experiments on the fungus and found that when diluted correctly it killed off hostile bacteria, however, it didn’t work on deeper infections and was incredibly hard to make. In 1929 he published his findings in a medical journal and received little attention for it.
Yet Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who read Fleming’s article decided it had potential and gained five years of funding from the government to research the potential drug. The scientists found that it cured mice of infections but, similarly to Fleming, had a lot of trouble producing large quantities of it. After five years of producing penicillin they tested it on a policeman dying of infection and although he started to get better the supply ran out halfway through the trial and the man’s condition regressed and he died. Knowing of the drugs weakness the two scientists went to America in an attempt to convince them to start producing the anti-biotic in factories. This was a success and in turn, they used it in world war two and D-day. It is estimated that they used over 2.3 million doses.
Ever since these scientists discovered and developed the first anti-biotic these drugs have become part of our life. Killer diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox and typhus are a thing of the past and an infection can be cured quickly by heading to the doctors and asking for a prescription. Anti-biotics even take on a big role in the farming industry. Farms have been adding antibiotics to livestock since 1946 to promote their growth and ability to put on weight. Between 1985-2001 the use of anti-biotics rose by 50%. Now around 80% of anti-biotics are used for animal production, meaning only 20% are used for human health. It has been a hot topic to whether the industry should be using antibiotics on their animals to this extent.
Many are also arguing that humans shouldn’t use anti-biotics to the extent they do. Many people see them as a cure to everything and sometimes forget that they are only effective on bacterial infections and tend to use them as a placebo drug. This is what has led to what scientists call the anti-bacterial resistance.
Around two years ago a Nevada woman died to an untreatable superbug. After returning from India she was found to be infected with Klebsiella pneumonia, a bacterium that normally lives in the gut without causing infection. 26 different drugs were ineffective against the bacterium, not even the last resort drug, colistin. Scientists say we can only expect more cases like this to happen in the future as the overuse of antibiotics has directly led to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that is impossible to kill with the antibiotics we have at the moment. The world health organisation warned that ‘many common infections will no longer have a cure and will once again kill unabated. As long as new antibiotics are being discovered we shouldn’t be having a problem but there hasn’t been a new one since the 1980’s and scientists are starting to get worried.
Professor Neil Woodford from the Health Protection Agency’s Anti-Microbial Resistance Unit said, ‘my lab is seeing an increasing number of resistant strains every year’.
So how do we protect ourselves from this scary future?
The answer is we don’t have much control but the best thing we can do is educate ourselves to when we need this anti-biotics. They will not do anything to cure viruses, funguses or protists. Be aware next time you go to the GP whether you need it.
