THE Alexander Fleming He holds a prominent position in her story Medical. Despite his humble ancestry, he managed to study medicine and distinguish himself in his field. His discoveries have paved the way for antibiotic development and effective treatment of bacterial infections.
Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 at the Lochfield farm in Darvel’s Scotland And it was the third of the four children of Hugh Fleming and Grace Morton. Growing, he did not show any special interest in medicine. He studied in schools in his area and moved to London when he reached adulthood to study at the Royal Technical Foundation. At the same time, he got a job at a shipping office so that he could cover his expenses.
A few years later, in 1903, Flemmis chose to follow another path and enrolled in the Medical School of St. Mary at Londonhaving been influenced by Tom’s older brother, who had just graduated from school. In 1906, he praised his degree in Medicine and Surgery and Two years later he received the “gold medal” for his performance. He remained as a curator at St. University Hospital. Mary to the explosion of World War I.
The interwar period found Fleming to investigate potential antibacterial agents, as many soldiers on the front were dying of septicemia from infected wounds. According to rumors circulating at the time, his bench was rarely neat, negatively affecting the course of his investigations as frequently created contaminations. However, these two largest discoveries are due to these contaminations. At the end of 1921, as he cultivated bacteria in agar plates, he found that a cultivation was contaminated with air bacteria. When he added nasal mucus, noticed that mucus prevented the growth of bacteria. The event moved his scientific curiosity and continued to test something else. He used a trial tube with saline, containing bacteria, so the liquid was yellow. When he added nasal mucus, the liquid within two minutes was clear. After constant research, he concluded that there was a bactericidal in the mucus, in tears and elsewhere. Fleming named the factor he discovered ‘luscious“
His enormous contribution was recognized by the international scientific community and in 1945 he was honored with the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
Six years later, in 1928, Fleming made his biggest discovery. Returning from his vacation on September 3, he found that A crop in wrap with coated staphylococci had been contaminated with fungi. The most curious was that the colonies of the Staphylococcus that were near the fungi were destroyed, while the rest of the farther were not affected at all. Fleming then studied the fungus that caused the infection and concluded that it belongs to the genus Penicillium. On March 7, 1929 he named this factor “penicillin“
It took over 10 years until the penicillin began to be made in large quantities in order to be granted to the injured soldiers of the Allied troops during the World War II. His enormous contribution was recognized by the international scientific community and in 1945 was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Almost thirty European and American universities recognized his contribution by proclaiming the honorary doctorate, and his Greek state awarded the Grand Cross of the Phoenix Order.
Fleming passed away on March 11, 1955, having a heart attack. His body was cremated and buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. In 1999, Time magazine ranked Fleming in the 100 most important personalities of the 20th century.
Column: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poumenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
