preview

The Use Of Sulfa Drugs During World War II

Good Essays

In 1928 Dr. Alexander Fleming began to sort through a pile of petri dishes containing colonies of bacteria that causes boils, sore throats, and abscesses. As he sorted through the dishes he noticed something unusual on one dish. It was dotted with colonies, and one area had a blob of mold growing. The area of mold was later identified as a rare strain of Penicillium notatum, the mold had secreted something that inhibited bacterial growth. Fleming later uncovered that this mold was capable of killing a wide range of harmful bacteria such as streptococcus, meningococcus and the diphtheria bacillus, that had played humanities. Prior to the discovery of Penicillin, Sulfa drugs were used during World War II. These drugs were name as the “wonder drug”. Although they’re still used today, Sulfa drugs were used to cure bacterial infections such as UTIs and gonorrhea. The new found drug penicillin, would cure millions and replace the use of Sulfa drugs.
In 1929 Fleming published his findings to a British Journal of Experimental Pathology, referencing that penicillin had potential of therapeutic benefits. Dr. Fleming was never able to purify his samples of penicillin, but he became the first person to publish the news of its germ-killing power. Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley expanded on Fleming 's work in 1938, at Oxford University.
The researchers worked on the purification and chemistry of penicillin, that began intensely in 1939. To carry out a program of

Get Access