Nowadays, antibiotics are used as a matter of course to fight bacterial diseases, with the help of which many diseases that were often fatal in the past are alleviated and cured. Although penicillin, the first antibiotic, is no longer helpful for many germs today because of antibiotic resistance, it was considered a “lifesaver” during World War II.
Accidental contamination
It came as a great surprise to Scottish physician Dr. Alexander Fleming (1881 – 1955) when he found an “altered” culture dish while conducting research at St. Mary’s Hospital in London in 1928. The plate was covered with blue-green mold and its bacterial colonies were severely inhibited in their growth.
Fleming described his find as follows: “Amazingly, the Staphylococcus colonies decompose within a considerable radius of the mold growth. What was once a full-grown colony was now only a puny remnant.” His investigations revealed that Penicillium notatum was the “culprit.”
Related discoveries
Similar observations had been made by other researchers before Fleming, but Fleming went further in his investigations and found that the fungus inhibited the growth of many bacteria that were deadly to humans, but did not attack white blood cells.
In 1929, Fleming published his discoveries, but the medical community paid little attention. In 1938, two scientists (Howard Florey and Ernst Chain) came across his publication and managed to isolate penicillin and produce it in large quantities. In 1945, Fleming, Florey, and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.
In his speech, Fleming spoke of a “purely accidental” contamination. Thanks to this “contamination,” penicillin has been produced on a large scale since 1944 and has been used successfully to combat many infectious diseases.
