How Penicillin Won World War II

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Penicillin was a crucial factor in the Allied victory of World War II. This medicine helped soldiers get back on the battlefield faster. While Sulfa drugs were helpful, they were not effective against venereal disease, of which 10% of all soldiers eventually contracted.

Special thanks to:
Dr. Sieker for his immeasurable help with bactericidal science.
Dr. Asaf Shalev
Dr. Nils Böhringer University of Giessen
Biologist Benjamin Unruh
Dr. Benny Shapiro
Bao Ho of UMas Chan Medical School.
Dante Tomaino
Dr Guy Killick MRCVS for helping me get the Gram stain right.
And Dr. Abdullah Chahin for that amazing story about Duchesne

References:
Powder of Sympathy
https://royalsociety.org/blog/2022/01/powders-of-sympathy/

Mortality rates during childbirth
https://slate.com/technology/2013/09/death-in-childbirth-doctors-increased-maternal-mortality-in-the-20th-century-are-midwives-better.html

The Civil War: Sex and Soldiers
https://artsci.case.edu/dittrick/online-exhibits/history-of-birth-control/contraception-in-america-1800-1900/the-civil-war-sex-and-soldiers

General Washington Fines for VD
https://historycollection.com/these-famous-figures-suffered-during-historic-health-crises/16/

Civil War VD Rates
https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm

Fit to Fight
https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2018/10/18/fit-to-fight-home-front-army-doctors-and-vd-during-ww-i/

Dyes in Germany
http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/entstehung_der_deutschen_farbenindustrie_en

Impact of Sulfa Drugs:
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.2.2.118l

British World War I VD 11,000 soldiers
http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/body-and-mind/the-british-army

Biscuit tins
https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/backfromthedead/exhibition/production/

Peoria played key role in mass production of penicillin
https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/local/2019/04/25/peoria-played-key-role-in/5340113007/

And if I perish (P210)

A Summary of Venereal Disease Statistics During World War II
https://achh.army.mil/history/book-wwii-communicablediseasesv5-appendixd

ernest-duchesne
https://incubator.rockefeller.edu/geek-of-the-week-ernest-duchesne/

Trenchfoot WWI (75000)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17219792/

Rights:
Enric likes Funk ;) - originally posted to Flickr as St Mary's Hospital

Camerawalker - Own work St Mary's hospital in Paddington London.

Gram Stain Courtesy Labs for Life, a partnership project of MoHFW and CDC

White Blood Cell Death / Georgia Atkin-smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-EuAmKK5pM

E. coli Cells Explode / Credit: Bernhardt Lab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlyy1gN2UNY

Bacteria attacking White Blood Cells / British Society for Immunology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoN4bPG210o

Reconstructed skeleton of "Jane"
By Zissoudisctrucker - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80955846

By Susannah Maidment et al. & Natural History Museum, London - Maidment SCR, Brassey C, Barrett PM (2015) The Postcranial Skeleton of an Exceptionally Complete Individual of the Plated Dinosaur Stegosaurus stenops (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A. PLoS ONE 10(10): e0138352. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138352, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45275061

By Arthur Charles-Orszag - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76393927

By P.Lameiro - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25626724

By Paja Jovanović (1859–1957) - Paja Jovanović (1970), Muzej grada Beograda, p. 30, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6516071

By MamaGeek - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4010967

https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0057805.htmlWellcome Collection gallery (2018-04-06): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yeqfhwph CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36204651

By Bundesarchiv, DH 2 Bild-F-01930 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5371958

By Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25464354

By Omargs10 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47271172

By Bundesarchiv, Bild 141-0864 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5418734

By Bill Larkins - DSTunitedOAK, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29362653