Time Line

1929- Alexander Flemming, a Scottish scientist, discovers penicillin, the first antibiotic.

1936- Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the cause of gonorrhea, is first treated with sulfonamids.

1940’s- Antibiotics become widely available for treatment of a number of diseases including strep throat, pneumonia, skin infections, wound infections, scarlet fever, and toxic shock syndrome.

1942- Strains resistant to sulfoamides emerge, so physicians turn to penicillin.

1946- Almost all strains of Staphylococcus are penicillin sensitive.

1954- 2 million pounds of antibiotics are produced annually in the United States.

1958- A penicillin-resistant strain emerges in the Far East.

1968- In Guatemala, an outbreak of dysentery caused by Shigella affect 112,000 and kill 12,500. The strains carry the R-plasmid, which makes them resistant to the antibiotics chloramphericol, tetracycline, streptomycine, and sulfoamide.

1972- In Mexico, a typhoid epidemic due to a Salmonella typhi strain with multiple drug resistance infects 100,000 and kills 14,000.

1983- In 4 Midwestern states, 18 people are infected with a Salmonella newport strain with multiple drug resistance. They had eaten hamburger from beef cattle that had been fed chlorotetracycline for growth promotion. 11 people were hospitalized and 1 person died.

Today- More than 50 million pounds of antibiotics are produced annually in the United States.