At one time or another, almost all used an antibiotic. You may have used and antibiotic cream for a bad haircut. Your doctor may have ordered antibiotics to help you over a sinus infection, pneumonia, or another kind of infection.
Antibiotics are chemicals. When chemicals are put into your body, they will stop the growth of certain types of bacteria. They want to help your body to fight disease.
More than 3000 years ago ancient people stumbled over the discovery that some molds could be used as a cure. Egyptians, Chinese and Indians in the U.S.
As time passed, people started to get some insight into the disease. In 1860, showed that Louis Pasture that many diseases are caused by bacteria. Later he discovered that we may be able to fight bacteria and other microbes. It was two German doctors who were the first to make an effective medication from microbes. Rudolf Emmerich and Oscar Low conducted their experiments in the 1890s. They have proven that bacteria can cause a disease can be a cure for a second.
What men did was to take the bacteria from infected bandages and grow them in a test tube. They would then isolate the particular bacteria that cause infections in open wounds green. This germ was a bacterium called Bacillus pyocyaneus. So put this into another test tube containing other types of bacteria. It was then that it happened, the Bacillus pycyoneus wiped another infectious agent. Bacteria that it killed were those that caused cholera, typhoid, diphtheria, and anthrax.
From this they created two men one medication, which they called pyocyanase. It was the first antibiotic to be used in hospitals. Unfortunately it does not work the same for all patients. Some were healed, and still some just became more ill. As a result, this drug was abandoned.
In 1928, delivered a researcher named Alexander Fleming the first real breakthrough in antibiotics. At that time, Fleming was on staff at a hospital in London
One day Fleming found a spot of green growing in one of the dishes. It was grown on the gel, which was among the bacteria. He did not throw the dish out because he noticed something in the bowl. There was a clear, germ-free ring of gelatin around the figure. This meant that the form had killed the germ that was there. Fleming sees as mold grew. The more the molds spread, the more of the germ that was liked.
Fleming made this a full time project. As he studied the mold he noticed that small drops of liquid began to form its shape. He wondered if it was the chemical that was to destroy bacteria.
Fleming drew off the liquid. He found that this liquid can kill bacteria in a test tube. The name of the mold was Penicillium notratum, so he decided to call the liquid penicillin. Later, other researchers discovered that penicillin could cure certain infections in mice and rabbits. On the other hand, it does not harm animals in any way.
After penicillin came the invention of the sulfa drugs. It comes from Prontosil, a substance used as a dye. When put into the body, Prontosil changes into and active germ-killing substance known as sulphanilamide. It has been proven that this drug can cure pneumonia, scarlet fever and blood poisoning.
In 1930, began in other laboratories to make other products in the same family. These became known as sulfa drugs and became a powerful weapon in the fight against disease. The drugs had some serious disadvantage themselves. If there is not enough of the substance was administered, the disease will worsen. Giving too much of the substance would disrupt the bodies defense system, again preventing a cure.
Penicillin had proved that it worked against pneumonia, scarlet fever, and several other diseases. It had no effect on the bacteria that caused typhoid, influenza, and many other diseases. As a result, a scientist continue their search for other antibiotics.
An American Medical Selman Waksman discovered a drug called streptomycin. It comes from bacteria found in soil and was a cure for many intestinal diseases.
Now we had penicillin and streptomycin. Each was affective against certain diseases, but scientists wanted more. The doctors wanted a broad spectrum of drugs. It is a simple antibiotic that could cure many different diseases.
The result was a success. A lab discovered Aureomycin, a substance that does the job of both penicillin and streptomycin. Another lab discovered Chloromycin. In 1949 came another lab up with one of the most effective antibiotics ever found, Terramycin. This substance can be used against many bacterial diseases. Even with the discovery of these new antibiotics, they went on.
Many might wonder why scientists are trying to find new or different antibiotics, when we already know so many. There are several reasons for this. One is that scientists are never happy or satisfied with what they know. They always want to learn more. The second has to do with the antibiotics themselves. Thirdly, the applications for new antibiotics.
For many years antibiotics seemed to win the war against the disease. As time passed, doctors discovered that some bacteria were not killed. Some types of bacteria that are no longer affected by antibiotics used to kill them.
The field of antibiotics have many unanswered questions. Nobody is sure how or why bacteria produce antibiotics, chemicals, or if they will always produce these chemicals under all conditions. They believe that the laboratory diet may stimulate the microbes to make these chemicals, but nobody knows for sure.
Many diseases are not caused by bacteria but by a virus. Among these are influenza and colds. Some cancers can also fall into this category. Many researchers have tested the anti-viral antibiotic. They were able to slow the growth of viruses in many cases. Many researchers hope that one day they will be able to develop antibiotics to fight viruses and bacteria in humans.
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