Efficiency of Penicillin

[Gino4]

Hello all,

I've been trying to find a reference or statistic regarding the efficiency of penicillin in WW2. "How many Allied troops were saved by penicillin"? is the question I'm trying to answer. If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd really be grateful.

Thanks

 

[Blackadder1916]

While penicillin may have been the "wonder drug" that came to the fore during WW2, it should be recognized that it was not widely available until later in the war (and even then was relatively restricted in its use).  But the military use of antibiotics during WW2 is most recognizable in cinema with images of soldiers sprinkling white 'Sulfa' powder on wounds before dressing them.

http://home.att.net/~steinert/wwii.htm#The%20Use%20of%20Penicillin%20in%20World%20War%20II

The Discovery of Sulfanilamide

  Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk (1895-1964), a German biochemist, whose research with antibacterial chemicals resulted in the discovery of a new class of drugs that provided the first effective treatments for pneumonia, meningitis, and other bacterial diseases. Domagk’s research involved analyzing thousands of chemicals for their antibacterial properties. In 1932 he tested a red dye, Prontosil. The dye itself had no antibacterial properties, but when Domagk slightly changed its chemical makeup, Prontosil showed a remarkable ability to arrest infections in mice caused by streptococcal bacteria. Domagk tested the drug on his daughter, who was near death from a streptococcal infection and had failed to respond to other treatments. She subsequently made a complete recovery

    After Domagk published his findings in 1935, doctors found that Prontosil could control many bacterial infections. Subsequently, other researchers developed derivatives based on the Prontosil sulfonamide group. The resulting so-called sulfa drugs revolutionized medicine and saved many thousands of lives.

    SULFANILAMIDE, first used in 1936, was the grandparent of the SULFONAMIDE family of drugs that are still extremely useful today. Dramatic proof of the effectiveness of this new agent was provided during an outbreak of meningitis in the French Foreign Legion in Nigeria. While sulfanilamide was available, there was an 11% mortality rate. After the supply was exhausted, mortality climbed to 75%. Sulfanilamide and its derivatives, which soon followed, were said to have "dethroned the captain of the men of death," such was their effectiveness in treating pneumonia.

The Use of Sulfanilamide in World War II

    The discovery of Sulfanilamide greatly affected the mortality rate during World War II. American soldiers were taught to immediately sprinkle sulfa powder on any open wound to prevent infection. Every soldier was issued a first aid pouch that was designed to be attached to the soldier’s waist belt. The first aid pouch contained a package of sulfa powder and a bandage to dress the wound. One of the main components carried by a combat medic during World War II was sulfa powder and sulfa tablets.

This from the QA website which may give a sense of the British perspective.

Penicillin use in World War Two

The first use of Penicillin in a military hospital during World War Two was described by Brenda McBryde in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War which was at the 98th British General Hospital (BGH) at Chateaudun on the Constantin Plateau.

Professor Alexander Fleming worked with army doctors in choosing suitable patients to trial his new antibiotic drug. The first use of penicillin by the military is described in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War and was a soldier with gas gangrene in his wound. The bubbles could be felt under the tissues and this normally meant the patient would die despite the best efforts of the nurses and doctors. He was given penicillin and made a recovery. Other patients were given penicillin such as servicemen with wounds exposed down to the bone. These too survived and the mortality rate fell.

QAs and medical officers were estimated to have saved up to 15% of lives with the new super drug penicillin. This new antibiotic was used extensively for military patients who had undergone amputation and other major operations or had extensive wounds. QAs would administer penicillin every three hours and often would no sooner finish one drug round of penicillin injections than they would have to start all over again. Even preparing the wonder drug was time intensive and these early preparations would have to be drawn up from their orange yellow coloured powder and mixed with sterile saline - no easy to pop and draw up ampoule for WWII QAs.

Nor was there easy to use disposable syringes and needles. Each life saving penicillin injection was administered with a glass syringe and had to be sterilised between usage. The syringes were wrapped in gauze and boiled but would often crack in the steriliser despite the best care of the QA Sisters.

It was said that the yellow powder penicillin drug smelt like old hay (cited in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor).

The early production of penicillin was expensive and the drug was in short supply until American and Australian laboratories set up production plants and supplied Allied medical services with the life saving medication.

The commercial production of penicillin was developed by Ernest Chain and Howard Florey and together with Professor Alexander Fleming they were awarded the 1945 Nobel prize for Medicine (cited in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor.

Sir Winston Churchill became ill in early 1944 with a chest infection. He was nursed by QAIMNS nursing sister Elizabeth Lavinia Clarke in his Flower Villa at Marrakesh (also spelt Marrakech) in Africa. She had been secretly flown from Egypt to nurse the Prime Minister back to health and he was soon able to plan the capture of the German Tenth Army at the Gustav Line.

Some of this valuable penicillin was left over after the Prime Minister had been treated by Brigadier Bedford of the Eighth Army. It was urgently dispatched to Delhi to be used to treat Brigadier Marriott. He was an RAMC consultant physician who developed septicaemia after a hernia operation. He was on the Dangerously Ill List but responded to the intra muscular injections and made a full recovery (cited in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde).