Treatments
Antibiotics
Also Known As Antibacterial Drugs
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Antibiotics are compounds that kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, used to treat bacterial infection. Although the discovery of penicillin dates to 1928, antibiotics as a treatment class did not become widely available until the purification work of the early 1940s and the wartime and postwar manufacturing scale-up that followed, after which they were joined by other classes such as streptomycin and the tetracyclines. This atlas describes the history of the treatment class and is not medical advice.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearPenicillin was discovered in 1928, but antibiotics only became an available treatment class once Florey and Chains team achieved purification and clinical testing in the early 1940s, with 1941 marking the first documented clinical use. Cross-Tradition Connections
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Treats
Antibiotics such as doxycycline reduce the duration and severity of cholera and are used alongside rehydration, which remains the primary life-saving treatment; this atlas does not yet carry a dedicated oral or intravenous rehydration treatment entity (see the gap record).
Effective treatment requires a multi-drug antibiotic regimen (streptomycin from the 1940s, later isoniazid and rifampin) sustained for months; a single antibiotic alone permits resistant strains to emerge.
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