WONDERFUL DRUG

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 12 January 1944, Page 3

WONDERFUL DRUG

USES OF PENICILLIN INFECTED WAR WOUNDS Penicillin, now established in medical practice as one of the most powerful germicides known, will be available for civilian needs by June. Hitherto practically all the limited supplies manufactured in the United States have been urgently required by the armed forces on all fighting fronts. The position in Britain is understood to be the same. Introduced not long after the sulphonamide drugs, penicillin has been found to surpass them in many respects as an agent for killing or preventing the growth of bacteria. It is much more potent than the sulphonamides, and is effective against organisms which resist them and all earlier modes of treatment. In a dilution of one part in 25.000.000 it completely inhibits the growth of staphylococci, an important group of bacteria, and does so partially in a dilution of one part in 160.000,000". There are no marked toxic effects. It I is proving invaluable in checking severe infections through battle wounds, and has saved many lives which would inevitably have been lost without it. OBTAINED FROM A MOULD j In 1028, scientific workers at Oxford I found that a mould, Penicillium notaHum, commonly occurring on fruit, possessed strong anti-bacterial powers, but it was not until a number of years later that Professor Alexander Fleming, professor of bacteriology in the University of London, suggested that the discovery might have important medical applications. ! It was announced in the lay press in August, 1942, that Professor H. W. Florey, F.R.S, professor of pathology at Oxford, had isolated the active principle of the mould, penicillin, and had demonstrated its value clinically. Great efforts were m%de to develop production on the largest possible scale for war purposes, and co-ordinated research to this end was undertaken in the laboratories of about a dozen large British and American drug manufacturing houses. SOLDIER’S LIFE SAVED One difficulty still existing is that the substance can only be produced by the cultivation of mould, and the prospect of making it synthetically was consideered some time ago to be not bright. It was reported in the United States this year that a new derivative had been prepared, capable of dealing with organisms which resisted penicillin, and in a dilution of one part in 400,000,000. It was stated recently that 22 American companies were engaged in the production of penicillin. In a recent despatch an Australian press correspondent at Algiers stated that astonishing results were being obtained with it in curing bad wounds and severe caseg of wound poisoning. For example, a badly-wounded, delirious soldier arrived by air in Algiers from Italy with symptoms of dangerous blood poisoning. A penicillin team was immediately summoned by air from a place 300 miles away, and the man was about again in a fortnight