Penicillin: Triumph and TragedyPenicillin is the drug of the twentieth century. It was the first of the antibiotics that, for decades after the Second World War, underpinned a popular belief that infectious disease had at last met its match. With the emergence of 'superbugs' in recent decades these hopes have faded. Acrossthe world, we are warned that widespread antibiotic abuse will inexorably erode the drugs' efficacy and our own earlier confidence in them. Penicillin pulls these different but conjoined stories into a compelling narrative spanning the second half of the twentieth century. Using a wealth of new research, Robert Bud sets the discovery and use of penicillin in the broader context of social and cultural change across the world. Heexamines the drug's critical contributions to medicine and agriculture, and he investigates the global spread of resistant bacteria as antibiotic use continues to rise. Clearly written and highly topical, his book will be of great interest to historians, scientists, and anyone wishing to understandpenicillin's seismic impact on modern life. Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy Curated by Robert Bud A new exhibition looking back over 50 years will explore changing attitudes to antibiotics and launch at the Science Museum on Thursday 10 May 2007 . In the 1950s antibiotics were cast as wonder drugs, but strains of bacteria resistant to penicillin were already widespread. They caused many deaths, most dramatically, infecting hospitalised victims of Asian flu in the autumn of 1957. Now we fear MRSA. How have attitudes, hopes and fears changed in half a century? |
Contents
PenicillinChemical and Brand | 1 |
1 Illness Drugs and Wonder Drugs before Penicillin | 4 |
2 Penicillin from Organized Science | 23 |
3 Creating the Brand in the Era of Propaganda | 54 |
4 Making Penicillin across the World | 75 |
5 The Carefree Culture and the Third Industrial Revolution | 97 |
6 Fighting Resistance with Technology | 116 |
7 Doctors Patients and the Brand | 140 |
8 Animals Resistance and Committees | 163 |
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agricultural Alexander Fleming American Medical Association ampicillin animals antibiotic resistance Antimicrobial bacterium Beecham biotechnology Britain British Medical Journal Cambridge campaign caused Cephalosporins Chain challenge chemical chemists Clinical Committee countries culture cure debate doctors Drug Resistance Dubos early Edward Mellanby Emerging epidemic Europe experience expertise fermentation Florey German global growth Heatley History of Medicine History of Penicillin Hospital human illness infection Infectious Diseases Institute John Joshua Lederberg laboratory Lancet Lederberg London Lord manufacture Merck methicillin Microbiology milk modern mould MRSA National Archives organisms Oxford University Press papers patients penicillin Penicillin Production Pfizer pharmaceutical industry physicians plant pneumonia post-war Prescribing prescription problem Public Health Report Salmonella Science and Medicine scientific scientists Second World Second World War Social Society Staphylococcus strains sulphonamides Swann syphilis threat treatment twentieth century United UNRRA venereal disease vitamins wartime wonder drug World Health World Health Organization York