Daily News Channel
The improbable chain of events that led Alexander Fleming to discover penicillin in 1928 is the stuff of which scientific myths are made. Fleming, a young Scottish research scientist with a profitable side practice treating the syphilis infections of prominent London artists, was pursuing his pet theory–that his own nasal mucus had antibacterial effects–when he left a culture plate smeared with Staphylococcus bacteria on his lab bench while he went on a two-week holiday.
You’ve heard or read the headlines: that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is deadlier than AIDS; that the killer bug is alarmingly more widespread than anyone thought; that it’s in your kids’ locker rooms and at your gym. Stories abound of young high-school athletes becoming infected with MRSA and dying within weeks, and you’re starting to worry about whether that nick or scrape you just got could be your last
New research suggests penicillin is becoming obsolete, and antibiotic resistance could lead to a “major health crisis” unless governments act to promote research into new drugs.