In London during 1928, the physician Alexander Fleming, learned that a natural mold had the amazing capability to kill the staph bacteria. This new antibiotic was very intriguing to the armies of America and Britain. During past wars, wounds that had become infected ended up killing more soldiers than were killed by battle injuries. Between World War I, and World War II, the death rate from bacterial infections fell from a massive 18 percent down to less than 1 percent. Certainly bacteria saved lives. As technology increased, and other types of antibiotics came on the scene, no doubt people’s lives were enhanced. People were not automatically handed a life sentence when they developed certain diseases or had certain injuries. Today, we
I think that McKenna’s article effectively uses logical and emotional appeal to convey her opinion that society’s scorn towards antibiotics is silly. She builds her academic argument by giving a comprehensive history of antibiotic history while citing outside resources from reliable organizations and scientists. Additionally, McKenna illustrates examples of benefits of proper antibiotic use, like with livestock raising. The article’s effectiveness also largely lies in its emotional appeal, particularly through personal testimony.
IS THE POSSIBILITY OF POST-ANTIBIOTICS REAL? Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future is an essay written by Maryn McKenna to emphasize focus on our lack of appreciation for what antibiotics have done for us and will continue to do for us, but only if we let them. She presents a very insightful and eye opening argument. She relies heavily on a very personal story as well as many facts and research to create such a convincing argument. McKenna begins her essay with recalling a time in which she found out about the death of her great-uncle due to a very infection.
Another account of this was the sulfonamide experimentation. In this test, bacteria such as streptococcus, gas gangrene, and tetanus was inserted into abrasions intentionally inflected to the subject. To generate a related condition to the ones faced by the German Armed Forces, circulation was stopped from both sides of the injury. "Doctors" forced wood shavings into the abrasions to exacerbate the infection. These illnesses were then treated with sulfonamide and additional drugs.
Stopping the Silent Killers: The Discoveries that Changed Medicine in War Before World War II the majority of fatalities in war were not caused by trauma but by diseases. Common diseases like dysentery, cholera, typhus, typhoid fever, smallpox and the influenza would wipe out entire camps of soldiers before bullets were ever fired. WWII marked the transition to trauma causing the most fatalities. Trauma wounds are defined as an injury to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agents like bullets, shrapnel, or blunt force injuries. Medical advances with blood transfusions, vaccines, and antibiotics caused a shift from infection being the most significant cause of combat fatalities to trauma causing the most deaths.
Florey and his colleagues at Oxford developed the antibiotic use for the penicillium mold however because Britain was under siege, they did not grant any funding or support. This lead to Florey and his colleagues going to the US for help which they gladly offered. The US gladly granted it and Florey and his colleagues began testing and eventually came up with an antibiotic. They began testing in 1942 and a year later, it entered the war. It was a game-changer because it was universal to many infections and later on, became cheap and abundant.
During World War 1, medical advancements were inspired by the medical challenges during the war. The medical innovations that came from WW1 are still in use today such as the flu shot, which has prevented millions of people from getting the virus, the invention of blood transfusion, and the invention of plastic surgery by Harold Gillies. In previous wars, it was the illnesses and the lack of antibiotics that caused the deaths of the majority of soldiers but during World War 1, it was the battle injuries and unknown infections that caused the majority of casualties. The Spanish Influenza or the Flu Epidemic caused many nurses, surgeons, as well as soldiers, to be infected with this very contagious and incurable disease.
but they types of bacteria they were exposed to. I am going to further address the antiseptic methods if any was implemented at all. Additionally a brief history behind the individuals who developed these techniques and their contribution to the medicine during the civil war.
They worked assiduously to uncover new methods of treatment in order to provide the best care for heroic soldiers. The catastrophe of the Civil War propelled medicine because it demanded that unprepared doctors adapt to face exceptional challenges. Advancements in the basic principles of medical technology during the American Civil War triggered a scientific movement that transformed medical practices from traditional methods into a modern discipline. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, most people restored to conventional approaches to medicine, which were all far from true science. When the Civil War began, educated doctors were in high demand but none of them could have anticipated the extent of tragedy occurring on the battlefields.
Moreover, Penicillin, a group of antibiotics, was discovered during this time, specifically in the 1928s by Alexander Fleming (ACS, 2023). Although the first dose of penicillin was used in 1941 by Albert Alexander, it was still a life-changing discovery as it changed the lives of many - even after the period of 1918s1939s (Wood, 2010). The discovery of penicillin allowed a lot of life-threatening diseases to be treated, such as bronchitis, tonsillitis, and pneumonia. Penicillin is known to save millions of lives. Indeed, in just World War Two, the death rate because of bacterial pneumonia would go from 18% to 1%, because of the invention of penicillin.
By the time the Civil War had begun Doctors had not yet grasped all there is to know about different medical techniques. They still had a lot to learn. But as more time went on they were able to gain a greater understanding on how different parts of the body reacted to different types of medicines. From working in the battle fields and in the hospitals, different methods were founded for the recurring type of problems soldiers faced. During the Civil War doctors faced a lot of patients daily, so they were able to have a lot of experience.
Death has always plagued humanity. Humans in the past have rebbuttled sickness with medicine. Humans and medicine have evolved alongside one another while disease continued to manifest rampantly. Some escalated to a severity that left individuals with less than a forty percent chance to live past the age of thirty. Unfortunately, this was the harsh reality for countless individuals during the Antebellum Louisiana era because the medical resources medical professionals had during late 1800s were vastly different in comparison to the resources available in today’s society. .
Another life saving drug was Insulin “Insulin was used to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar which could be deadly if it wasn't under control” (“1920’s medicine”). Technology saved many lives and improved just as many without the technological advancements in the 20’s many people would have died, gotten sick and not had an as enjoyable life as they did because of
However, the physicians did not reveal the actual purpose of the study. Consequently, penicillin was the most effective medication, but the doctors decided to withhold treatment (Bozeman, Hirsch, & Slade ,
The bubonic plague remains to this day one of the most deadly events of all time. The number of those infected rose exponentially every day and it had a large death rate. What made the virus so deadly was the quick and easy spread that left people helpless to the infection. The plague was so detrimental that the effects of the Black Death can even be seen in today’s society.
The infection death rate of the Allies vanished amid WW2 when penicillin