Did you know that penicillin was used in World War 2 to help reduce bacterial infections in soldiers’ wounds? The author states this in passage 3, The Discovery of Penicillin: The True Story. Penicillin was discovered and helped put into use by many scientists, multiple countries also helped too. To begin with, penicillin was discovered by accident. According to passage 1 Not-So-Dumb Luck, paragraphs 6 and 7 it says “Bacteriologist Alexander Fleming left for vacation one day in September of 1928, he left his laboratory a mess… When he came back he noticed that every dish had been covered in mold… a dish that caught Flemings eye contained… a rare spore called Penicillium notatum.” Fleming did not know that leaving his laboratory a mess he
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.
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.
Those who were chosen for the study received rides to the Tuskegee University Clinic, free meals and medical treatment. To make the ‘story’ more believable, the participants were given ‘placebos’, which were harmless pills used for new testing. When the cure for syphilis was connected to the newfound drug, penicillin in 1945, researchers would not offer the drug to the participants of the
It was during the 1930s when the United States faced a serious health crisis. Many individuals were reported to be suffering from a sexually transmitted infection (STI) known as syphilis. Rashes and painful sores were some of the significant initial symptoms of this infection, which afflicted nearly 1 in 10 Americans during that time period. After such aforementioned initial symptoms progress, an individual is left with damaged internal organs, disorders in both the heart and brain, and vision loss or blindness. At the time, there was no known treatment for syphilis; however, bismuth and mercury were used to treat individuals with syphilis, both of which were regarded as unreliable and potentially harmful if used.
Machine guns and poisonous gas were two new weapons used heavily during the war, along with the use of trench warfare. The weapons were more deadly than in previous wars, which caused the medical technology to lag behind. The medical staff was inexperienced to the new injuries caused by the modern weapons and the clinic had inadequate amounts of supplies to properly treat patients. The lack of funds used to supply the medical equipment caused many soldiers to go untreated which either amplified their injuries or caused death. For example, Kemmerich would have had a higher chance of surviving his leg amputation if there were modern medical techniques and supplies available.
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.
Review of Literature Compare and contrast the level of medical care and advancements given to the allies in World War 1 and World War 2. Source 1 World War 1 saw the introduction of X-rays and blood transfusions. The X-rays allowed doctors to see where a bullet or pieces of shrapnel had penetrated an injured soldier and where they were in the soldier’s body. The x-ray machines, although big, were portable. With the recent advancements of motorised ambulances during World War 1, medics were able to get to injured soldiers faster and transport the x-ray machines with them.
The experiments performed by German physicians during World War II were torturous, unethical, and unreasonable when considering better ways in which the research could have been conducted. Experiments were performed on non-consenting camp prisoners by physicians attempting to improve soldier survival rates and further knowledge in lesser-explored medical fields (Coleman et al. 16). Experimentation to find a cure for Malaria was performed from February 1942 to April 1945, during which time prisoners were infected with malaria and treated with different drugs in order to find the best cure. Coleman notes, “Over 1,000 involuntary subjects were used in these experiments. Many of the victims died and others suffered from severe pain and disability…”
We had no sterilized gauze dressing, no gauze sponges.... We knew nothing about antiseptics and therefore used none (“Civil War Medicine”, paragraph
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 ,
it increased medical technology, manufacturing and even decreased infections. The utilization of penicillin in WW2 incredibly influenced the Allied soldiers positively. Penicillin was significantly required on the front lines of World War 2 to treat harmed troops. (Krebs,20)