3 ms·
You are confusing two things. AntiSEPTICS and germ theory were both well established by the Spanish Flu. AntiBIOTICS were not. In other words we knew how to
by btilly 7y ago
You are confusing two things. AntiSEPTICS and germ theory were both well established by the Spanish Flu. AntiBIOTICS were not. In other words we knew how to prevent surgical infection but not how to treat a bacteria that had already settled into someone's body.
Louis Pasteur came up with and proved the germ theory in the 1860s. Joseph Lister proved in 1865 that carbolic acid would prevent infection in surgery. Adoption took many years, but by the 1880s antiseptic surgery was widely adopted and Lister was made a baronet in recognition.
The Spanish flu was 1918, decades after the widespread adoption of antiseptics.
The first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered in 1928. But it did not enter medical use until 1942. This was not a result of doctors resisting a good idea though. Penicillin is created by a bacteria. How do you produce useful quantities of a substance that in concentration kills the very thing that produces it?
- dan_hawkins 7y ago"Penicillin is created by a bacteria" - I think Penicillin is made by a fungus.
- btilly 7y agoYou are correct, my bad. But the production problem is what I described. The fungus is resistant but not immune to its own poison. It therefore proved very hard to produce commercially viable amounts. However once a mass production method was found, it was considered vital to the war effort and we quickly ramped up production.
- empath75 7y ago> Penicillin is created by a bacteria Mold, no?
- refurb 7y agoSulfonamides were used widely before penicillin was (1930's). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfonamide_(medicine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfonamide_(medicine)
- btilly 7y agoYes, but the ones used at that point slow bacteria growt, but do not kill bacteria. They are therefore not considered antibiotics. They were also discovered after the Spanish flu.