Carey Dumele, age 9, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, for his question:
What does penicillin do?
Penicillin is an antibiotic medicine and the word antibiotic means "against life." This seems rather strange. Because as you know, the duty of penicillin is to save human lives. However, there is a good reason for calling it an antibiotic. It fights certain germs that attack our bodies and these enemy germs are tiny living things. What's more, this miracle medicine also comes from tiny living things. Penicillin is called an antibiotic because it goes to war against live enemy germs.
Germs called bacteria cause many infections and other sicknesses. These tiny enemies are too small for our eyes to see. But inside the body they act like invading armies. The bitsy bandits thrive on our living cells and multiply. The body fights back and tries to defend itself. It sends swarms of white blood cells and other tiny soldiers to fight the enemy germs. This starts a miniature scale war. The living germs multiply and the body creates more little warriors to fight them.
As the battle rages, the body uses all its strength to defend itself. It becomes sick and weak and the patient runs a high fever. Chances are, it wins and the battle and finally defeats the enemy. But this takes time. What's more, when the war is won, the brave body is all worn out. It needs time to rest and lots of good food to repair the damage.
For ages, doctors tried to find ways to help the body fight these enemy. germs. They knew that germs cannot live in a seething furnace and also that many strong chemicals are germ killers. But a hot furnace, naturally, would also kill the patient and many chemical germicides happen to be harmful poisons. Then, in 1928, a strange little mold plant was discovered. It wiped out certain enemy bacteria but it did little or no harm to the body's tender living cells. Under the microscope, the new miracle medicine looks like a carpet of tiny pencils so they called it penicillin.
As it thrives, the magic mold creates a substance that can wipe out bacteria that cause pneumonia. It helps the body in its fight against certain other enemy bacteria before they have a chance to do so much damage. The battle is soon over and the patient recovers faster. However, nothing is 100 per cent perfect. Penicillin cannot cure every complaint. It cannot help us to fight a cold or the many diseases causes by virus germs. Only a doctor knows when this miracle medicine can help and also how many doses the patient needs to fight the enemy.
Research teams have found other antibiotics to help us fight some of the bacteria that penicillin does not destroy. They also have learned a few "bewares." For example, if a patient takes penicillin too often, it may refuse to help him when he reall needs it. Sometimes it even gives a patient a harmful allergy. So sensible folk always let the doctor decide and they take the exact doses he prescribes. And, if a few pills are left over when the battle is won, they throw them away. Then they are not tempted to play doctor and take this strong medicine for the wrong complaint and nobody snooping through the medicine chest will be tempted either.