The antibacterial effects of sulfanilamide were first observed in 1932, when German bacteriologist and pathologist Gerhard Domagk noted the effects of the red dye Prontosil on Streptococcus infections in mice. It was later proved by French researchers that the active agent of Prontosil was sulfanilamide, or para-aminobenzenesulfonamide, a product of the body’s metabolism of Prontosil. By the 1940s sulfanilamide was a widely used drug. During World War II white sulfanilamide powders became standard in first-aid kits for the treatment of open wounds, and sulfanilamide tablets were taken to fight intestinal infections. Though the medicine was relatively safe, allergic reactions such as skin rashes, fever, nausea, vomiting, and even mental confusion
According to, http://www.toxicology.org/gp/fda.asp, the Society of Toxicology website, in 1937 the Massengill pharmaceutical company dispersed Elixir Sulfanilamide. This drug was prescribed generally to anyone who had symptoms of strep throat. Elixir Sulfanilamide contains diethylene glycol, which is a chemical equivalent of antifreeze. There were 107 documented deaths, involving many children, because of the lack in regulations. The Pure Food and Drug Act was deemed to insufficient to protect the public. This tragedy was the critical motivation for the creation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
During the period 1800 to 1900 dressings with silver nitrate were used to treat skin ulcers and other types of wounds (Alexander, 2009). In the 1880’s, Doctor Carl Siegmund Franz Crede introduced the use of silver nitrate eye drops to successfully prevent gonorrheal ophthalmia in newborns (Alexander, 2009, p.291). In the period between 1900 and 1940, colloidal silver was consumed by patients and silver was also given intravenously; but it was later discovered in high doses parenterally, the silver could cause gastrointestinal disturbances, convulsions or death (Alexander, 2009, p.291). The use discovery and use of antibiotics has resulted in greatly decreased use of parenteral silver products by today’s allopathic doctors.
Acacia Dairsow Page one P.5 The Amazing Discovery of Penicillin and Antibiotics! Antibiotics have been around for years, but at the same time only for a short period, as in about 80 years ago Therefore penicillin and antibiotics are one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century Seeing as how Penicillin is one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century, it is now commonly used to cure “common” or “simple” infections, Alexander Fleming was the one to discover Penicillin and its uses, and Penicillin was actually discovered by accident. I’ve used a variety of sources to learn and study about one
In the last decade, the number of prescriptions for antibiotics has increases. Even though, antibiotics are helpful, an excess amount of antibiotics can be dangerous. Quite often antibiotics are wrongly prescribed to cure viruses when they are meant to target bacteria. Antibiotics are a type of medicine that is prone to kill microorganisms, or bacteria. By examining the PBS documentary Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria and the article “U.S. government taps GlaxoSmithKline for New Antibiotics” by Ben Hirschler as well as a few other articles can help depict the problem that is of doctors prescribing antibiotics wrongly or excessively, which can led to becoming harmful to the body.
The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938: Sulfonamide tested for flavor and fragrance but not safety, children died and 350 more were poisoned. This act made it so the sale of unsafe drugs could be stopped, that toxic drugs could be seized, and the burden of proof was given to the manufactures to show data of safety experiments.
The discovery of penicillin was one of the most important discoveries in the 1900s and marks a turning point in human history. Penicillin was one of the world’s first antibiotics which eventually evolved into modern antibiotics that are used today; it has often been described as a miracle drug. The discovery of penicillin meant that doctors finally could completely cure their patients of deadly diseases. After World War I, many soldiers died from infected wounds because the antiseptics used, killed the patients’ immunological defences more than they killed the invading bacteria. Penicillin kills bacteria by destroying the cell wall of the microorganism causing the cell to burst; it was very effective in clearing bacteria without harming the
The pushers can be considered as multiple components of the health care system that promoted, fostered and encouraged the use of Prontosil for patients. Initially, the American medical community did not buy into idea of treating diseases and illnesses with chemotherapeutic drugs. The publication of scientific articles on Prontosil within U.S. medical journals did not even occur until late 1936, meaning most of the medical community was unaware of this drug in the U.S. While all this time, sulfa was well known and widely used in Europe. America lagged behind Europe for pushing the drug into the market mainly due to the lack of U.S. journals covering the topic. The first ground breaking publication that convinced the U.S.
During the 1930s, Winthrop Chemical Company Inc. became a leader in the pharmaceutical industry with the introduction of renowned products including Salvarsan and Neo-Salvarsan (the first effective drugs in the treatment of syphilis), Prontosil and Neoprontosil (the first of the sulfa drugs), and Atabrine (the synthetic antimalarial that replaced quinine during WWII). [15] The company eventually expanded overseas in 1938 and operated seventy plants in forty countries. [13, 15]
At the Radcliff Infirmary, between February and June 1941, many rooms that have been emptied due to deficiency of inquiry investment firm at the William Dunn Schooltime of Pathology were transformed into penicillin manufactory . Still, the produced quantity were low, so one of the project was to re-isolate penicillin from the water of
Sulfanilamide, along with other sulfa drugs became to be useful in the early 1900s. The discovery of Prontosil, an antibacterial agent, triggered the interest in sulfonamide derivatives. In 1935, it was learned that animals metabolized Prontosil to sulfanilamide [1]. Further experiments with sulfanilamide demonstrated similar properties as Prontosil. Since sulfanilamide was determined to be active in vivo and vitro, the interest in sulfa drugs was increased.
Sulfa drug is any member of a group of synthetic antibiotics containing the sulfanilamide molecular structure. Sulfa drugs were the first antibiotics to treat and prevent bacterial infections in humans.
He was able to continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal tissues. DUring the war Fleming learned that treatments done to the wounded often did more harm than good. Fleming advised only to clean wounds with a sterile towel as to avoid infections. In 1921, he discovered in tissues an important bacteriolytic substance which he named Lysozyme. About this time, he devised sensitivity titration methods and assays in human blood and other body fluids, which he subsequently used for the titration of penicillin. In 1928, after getting home from a vacation he noticed he had accidentally left some influenza slides out. When he went to clean it up he noticed a strange thing. He observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance
Ehrlich is responsible for the first man made antibiotic that was able to treat one a STD (Bosch and Rosich, 2008). Through the process of creating a treatment for syphilis, it wasn’t until the 606th compound showed possibility of being a positive asset in treating syphilis (Bosch and Rosich, 2008). Although, the 606th compound known as Salvarsan was first tried in 1907 and provided a negative result in treating syphilis (Bosch and Rosich, 2008). Allowing the antibiotic of Salvarsan to sit Ehrlich attempted to reassess it on the STD of syphilis in the year of 1909 (Bosch and Rosich, 2008). It was the reassessment of the Salvarsan that provided a positive result of chemotherapy in providing treatment for syphilis (Bosch and Rosich, 2008). As many creating an antibiotics Ehrlich used rabbits to test the antibiotics on before exposing humans that are diagnosed with syphilis.
caused ulcers. It was backed up by Weiner et al in 1957. He used army
Abstract: The bacteriophage (“phage”) is a unique virus which is only capable of infecting bacterial cells, and therefore appears harmless to mammals, including humans. As a result, phage usage as an antibacterial therapy was first initiated in the early 1900’s. However, with the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940’s, phage therapy had essentially ceased in Western Europe and North America. Currently with the development of multi-drug resistant bacteria, a renewed interest in bacteriophage research has again emerged with emphasis not only on its antibacterial properties, but on its potential role in treating malignant diseases. In addition, in vitro “phage display” technology has been developed whereby a specific gene encoding a peptide/protein of interest can be inserted into the phage genome. The resulting peptide/protein is then “displayed” in the bacteriophage’s viral coat where it can be extracted for analysis. The biology of the bacteriophage, together with recent research studies and selected applications, is reviewed with respect to its potential role in the future treatment of bacterial infections and cancer.