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It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them…

Alexander Fleming, Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1945

HealthScienceHistory

The story behind the card

Alexander Fleming was the Scottish bacteriologist who noticed in 1928, at St Mary's Hospital in London, that a mould was killing the bacteria on one of his culture plates; the substance it made became penicillin. He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who turned it into a usable drug. In his lecture he imagined a man who takes too little penicillin for a sore throat, breeds resistant bacteria and passes them to his wife, who then dies of an infection penicillin can no longer cure. Misuse of antibiotics is still a major cause of drug resistance.

Türkçe oku
Mikropları laboratuvarda, öldürmeye yetmeyecek yoğunlukta penisilinle karşılaştırarak bu ilaca dirençli hâle getirmek zor değildir…
Alexander Fleming, Nobel Konuşması, 11 Aralık 1945

Alexander Fleming, 1928'de Londra'daki St Mary's Hastanesi'nde bir petri kabında üreyen küfün bakterileri öldürdüğünü fark eden İskoç bakteriyologdu; küfün ürettiği madde penisilin oldu. 1945 Nobel Ödülü'nü, penisilini kullanılabilir bir ilaca dönüştüren Howard Florey ve Ernst Chain'le paylaştı. Konuşmasında şöyle bir örnek verdi: boğaz ağrısı için yetersiz dozda penisilin alan bir adam, bakterilerini ilaca dirençli hâle getirir ve onları karısına bulaştırır; karısı da penisilinin artık işe yaramadığı bir enfeksiyondan ölür. Antibiyotiklerin yanlış kullanımı bugün de ilaç direncinin başlıca nedenlerinden biridir.

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Background reading: Alexander Fleming
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