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75 years of penicillin in people

Blogs General

A scratch from a rose thorn while gardening. It’s an easy injury to pick up even if you’re being careful. It’s annoying but no more than that. If that scratch were to be in your mouth, that would be unusual, unfortunate and maybe a little embarrassing.

But what if it gets infected? That’s inconvenient – you’ll have to go to your GP, who can prescribe an antibiotic that will soon clear things up. It’s hardly life threatening.

Today, with a range of antibiotics available, we take for granted our ability to cure infections. Yet, it’s only 75 years since a team of Oxford University researchers proved that penicillin could fight infections in people.

Read more (Oxford Science blog)

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