Miracle Cure by William Rosen

William Rosen's book, Miracle Cure: The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine, describes the state of medicine prior to the use of antibiotics up to the present day.  From the 18th through the 19th century doctors vacillate from heroic often unhelpful attempts to prolong life to palliative care that supported the patient as their own immune system fought off the disease or succumbed to it.  The smallpox vaccine was a lone bright spot.

Finding out about the initial antibiotic properties of Penicillium notatum (aka Penicillium chrysogenum) by Alexander Fleming was just the beginning of a long process to make enough penicillin available prior the the allies D-Day invasion of Europe.  We have many people to thank.  The British researchers who stole bedpans to use in the initial manufacturing process when they had run out of laboratory glassware. The person who found a strain of Penicillium notatum growing on a cantaloupe. Researchers in Minnesota and Wisconsin who irradiated the mould helping to produce mutants that produced higher yields.  Please see a recent research article which suggests that the organism was actually Penicillium rubens.

William Rosen describes the process of  gathering several  hundred thousand soil samples from around the world attempting to find actinomycetes (filamentous bacteria) with antibiotic properties. Several pharmaceutical companies used this process to find streptomycin, and erythromycin.

During the Obama administration development of new antibiotic medications was encouraged. This is an expensive process with low probability that any new antibiotic will be an improvement on the  existing drugs. The new antibiotics are need as antibiotic resistance has occurred due to unwarranted prescription, non compliance with antibiotic protocol and the extensive use of antibiotics in livestock to improve growth rate.

Justinian's Flea by William Rosen - 4 min.