Health and Medicine
95 Penicillin & Pneumonia
Alexa Heathorn and Sara Slagle
introduction
In today’s world, we view pneumonia as a common and easily fought infection. In most cases, antibiotics are prescribed and the infection is gone in a matter of days. But how bad would this common infection be if we didn’t have the antibiotics we rely on and often take advantage of? Before Penicillin was discovered as a cure for Pneumonia, this disease was one of the most common causes of death. The discovery and mass production of Penicillin has allowed the medical field to defeat the once deadly disease of Pneumonia, which lead to a decreased mortality rate for people who had been affected by the disease.
Pneumonia and it’s Effect on Society
Symptoms of pneumonia have been found in history dating all the way back to 460 BC. However, it wasn’t until the late 1880’s that the exact cause was found. Pneumonia is an infection that can be caused by viruses or bacteria. Viral Pneumonia typically goes away on its own, however bacterial Pneumonia must be treated. The most common bacterium responsible for causing pneumonia is Streptococcuspneumoniae (S pneumoniae), which was first isolated by Pasteur and Sternberg in 1880. Pneumonia, a bacterial infection in the lungs, causes air sacs in the lungs to inflate and fill with fluid and pus. People who are infected with pneumonia experience shortness of breath, coughing, yellow mucus, fever, sweating and chills, rapid and shallow breath, sharp chest pain, low energy, loss of appetite, and nausea and vomiting Today, bacterial pneumonia is treated with antibiotics, however, these medical solutions have not always available (Pneumonia Symptoms and Diagnosis, 2019).
Pneumonia was coined as the “captain of the men of death” in the early 20thcentury when the fatality rate had increased to 30-40% (Osler, 1912, p. 75), Adam J., and Jeffrey N. Weiser). One of the most prominent major death events involving pneumonia was during the dust bowl that destroyed the southern plains in 1931-1939. High winds from the dust storms caused large amounts of dirt to pollute the air. The inhalation of dust lead to type of pneumonia that became commonly known as “dust pneumonia”. With no cure for pneumonia, over 7,000 people fell victim to the infectious disease (“When Deadly Dirt Devastated the Southern Plains.” , 2011). Succeeding this increase in fatality was a race to find the cure. Before penicillin was discovered, scientists were finding very little success in creating a cure. The infection was treated with several different processes including sulfonamide therapy and serum therapy. However, these treatments were expensive and showed very little promise in curing those inflicted with pneumonia (“When Deadly Dirt Devastated the Southern Plains.” , 2011).
Not only did Pneumonia have a massive impact on general society, it also greatly affected the war. Before the discovery of penicillin, one of the major causes of death in soldiers were caused