Antibacterials
Antibacterials are drugs that inhibit the growth of, or kill, microorganisms that cause infectious diseases. These drugs have a grater effect on bacteria then they do on human cells, hence, they are selective. However, since they are ineffective against normal body cells, they cannot be used against viruses but can only be used against bacteria. Antibodies, produced by the body’s defence mechanism protect the body against infection. When bacteria multiply faster then can be neutralised by the body’s defences, they produce infectious diseases. Antibiotics aid white blood cells by preventing bacteria from multiplying, either by inhibiting cell division or by directly killing bacteria.
History
Fleming had accidentally discovered a mould containing Penicillium notatum in 1928. He concluded that the mould growing must have inhibited bacterial growth by producing a compound that he calls penicillin. Noting its antibacterial qualities, he tested its effectiveness as an antiseptic in treating open wounds and wrote an article for the British medical journal, the Lancet. His active interest in penicillin ended there and it was Howard Florey, a decade later, who led a team of researchers at Oxford in transforming a scientific observation into the century’s greatest practical weapon in the fight against infection. Florey and his team dried the penicillin ‘juice’ from Fleming’s mould (which had been stored in a laboratory fridge) and made it into a powder. They then set about purifying the drug so that it could be ingested for the treatment of infections within body cells. In May 1940, they tested it for the first time on living creatures: eight laboratory mice. All the mice had been injected with a deadly dose of streptococci but only four were treated with penicillin. The lucky four survived; the other four died. It wasn’t until 1941 that Florey and his team tested the drug on a human: a policeman named Albert Alexander who developed horrible life-threatening infections throughout his body after scratching himself with a rose thorn. Alexander made a remarkable recovery but then died when the supply of penicillin (which was extremely difficult to produce in large quantities at the time) was exhausted.
