Penicillin: The Bacterial Cell Killer Before the discovery of penicillin, bacteria-caused diseases took a heavy toll on the world population. During the 1800’s there were only limited ideas about how diseases were generated in the human body. Two men, Pasteur and Koch, had clearly shown the connection between disease and bacteria, but not many people believed in the work they were doing. (Brown, 1996, P.1). Around the late 1850’s, a few people were beginning to take …showed first 75 words of 633 total…

…showed last 75 words of 633 total…drug. During the time Flemming was working to perfect penicillin, he made a prediction eventually penicillin would have limited value, because bacteria would eventually recombine genetically to resist the effect of penicillin. Because of this resistance, new approaches are being sought to fight bacteria. They include using a combination of antibiotics and changing the chemical structure of antibiotics. These have been successful, but unfortunately, the bacteria are still recombining genetically to become resistant. (Wong, 1998, P.24)