How did penicillin change the world

The year 1928 was one of the most historical years for the field of medicine. This was because this was the year when Alexander Fleming made a mistake of leaving his work uncovered and discovered penicillium when he returned from his holiday. This was one of the most notable incidents in the history of mankind. This proves that serendipity has some role in a person's success. Though a mistake, it was one of the most important discoveries. Within a short span of twenty years, it had secured some much importance that the entire world required lots of penicillin to treat the wounded.

The immense popularity of penicillin was helped by the fact that it was the first antibiotics and therefore, it produced results that were very different to all the people. Before this discovery, they did not have medicines that protected open wounds from getting infected. Apart from this, penicillin also cured a lot of other bacterial infections including pneumonia, a disease that was and still is much dreaded. It is also a drug that can be used on animals too. This drug has withstood a lot and is still present in the world. Even today, there are many people who prefer to use penicillin rather than any other antibiotic.

The Second World War may have been a great disaster for the world but for penicillin, it was the greatest time to show its curing power. During a war, it was but natural that soldiers would get injured. Lots of penicillin was required to prevent the wounds from becoming infected. This called for mass production of penicillin and lots of time and money was devoted for the bulk production of penicillin. The importance of penicillin was proven to the world when the responsibility of producing penicillin was shifted over to U.S.A from Britain fearing Nazi bombing.

It was not till after World War II that the method for the mass production of penicillin was discovered. There were many other sources of penicillin that were discovered and these were also used for treating. The chemical formula of penicillin was discovered to be R-C9H11NO4S where R was a side chain. The knowledge of this formula helped in the synthetic production of penicillin. Today, there are several types of penicillin where most of them are wither synthetic or semi-synthetic. As and when time progressed, it has been discovered that penicillin is losing its effectiveness as bacteria are able to develop resistance against antibiotics. This news has saddened people that penicillin was one of the numerous steps in mankind's path towards success. However, mankind will remember penicillin-"The wonder drug" for many more years to come.

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