Pub. 7 2017 Issue 3

14 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY A ntibiotics are considered to be one of the major accomplishments of the 20th century. Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) understood the significance of antibiotics because in addition to being a physician and research scientist, he was also a veteran of World War I. He had seen many soldiers die because of preventable infections. Dr. Fleming published his discovery of penicillin in 1929; later, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain figured out how to mass produce penicillin so it could be used by physicians during World War II. Medical professionals began to use penicillin and other antibiotics to treat infections, sterilize operating rooms, and prevent the spread of bacterial disease by using antibacterial soap. Penicillin was an effective way to treat diseases such as: • Diphtheria • Gonorrhea • Meningitis • Bacterial pneumonia • Scarlet fever Too often today, bacteria resist or ignore antibiotics. This is something Dr. Fleming had understood would happen, and he spoke about antibiotic res i st ance when he accepted a Nobel Prize in 1945. By the 1950s, bacteria resistance to penicillin was a real problem for physicians. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was identif ied in Br it ain in 1962, and by 1968, it had been identified in the U.S. as well. The init ial, shor t- term response was simply to come up with new antibiotics. However, the World Health Or gan i zat i on has now gat he red information from its 114 member nations about resistant infections in communities and in hospitals. Commonly used antibiotics that treat E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and S. aureus have become inef fec tive against some forms of bacteria more than 50 percent of the time. Two million people in the U.S. are sickened every year by infections that don’t respond to antibiotics; 23,000 of those die as a result. Believe it or not, that’s where the mining industry can get involved. You see, copper and silver both inhibit germs. That’s one reason we use copper in home plumbing systems: it helps keep the water clean. Silver serves the same function in water purifiers. It stops algae and bacteria Mining for Healthier Lives