Arsenicals and sulphonamides, drugs made by chemical tinkering with synthetic dyes, as well as a number of disinfectants made with metal ions toxic to bacteria, such as mercury or copper, were in use well before the introduction of penicillin.
Bloodletting was used as a medical therapy for over 3,000 years. It originated in Egypt in 1000 B.C. and was used until the middle of the 20th century. Medical texts from antiquity all the way up until 1940s recommend bloodletting for a wide variety of conditions, but particularly for infections.
Before the discovery of antibiotics, there was nothing much anybody could do. Streptococcus pyogenes caused half of all post-birth deaths and was a major cause of death from burns. Staphylococcus aureus was fatal in 80 percent of infected wounds and the tuberculosis and pneumonia bacteria were famous killers.
Various moulds and plant extracts were used to treat infections by some of the earliest civilisations – the ancient Egyptians, for example, applied mouldy bread to infected wounds.
Treatment of Streptococcal Diseases
Treatments over the centuries have also included bloodletting, as well as drugs derived from herbs with emetic, purgative, diaphoretic, or narcotic properties.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, mercury, arsenic and sulphur were commonly used to treat venereal disease, which often resulted in serious side effects and many people died of mercury poisoning.
The average life expectancy at birth was 47 years (46 and 48 years for men and women respectively) even in the industrialized world. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, plaque, tuberculosis, typhus, syphilis, etc. were rampant.
The Eber's papyrus, an Egyptian medical papyrus dated 1550 BC, is the oldest document describing the use of moldy bread and medicinal soils in treating infections. Similarly, traces of tetracycline, an antibody with chelating effects, were found in human bones collected from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt.
Even some more-modern antibiotics may have been available in ancient times. Traces of tetracyclines have been detected in human skeletons excavated in Nubia and during the Roman occupation of Egypt.
Antibiotics are only needed for treating certain infections caused by bacteria, but even some bacterial infections get better without antibiotics. We rely on antibiotics to treat serious, life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia and sepsis, the body's extreme response to an infection.
Sepsis was once commonly known as “blood poisoning.” It was almost always deadly. Today, even with early treatment, sepsis kills about 1 in 5 affected people.
One hundred years ago, before antibiotics, there was no effective treatment for either gonorrhea or syphilis. Treatment for gonorrhea was largely symptomatic, and for syphilis was use of toxic metals, such as arsenic. The armies of The First World War dealt with venereal disease in quite different ways.
Pneumonia was often treated with toxic chemicals such as arsenic or strychnine. These treatments were based on the theory that pneumonia was caused by a bacterial infection, and that the toxins would kill the bacteria.
For over two thousand years, bloodletting was a standard treatment for almost any ailment, including infectious diseases. In an attempt to alleviate symptoms, bloodletting practitioners used various instruments to withdraw blood from patients, including syringes, lancets, and even leeches.
A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago.
The first antibiotic, salvarsan, was deployed in 1910. In just over 100 years antibiotics have drastically changed modern medicine and extended the average human lifespan by 23 years. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 started the golden age of natural product antibiotic discovery that peaked in the mid-1950s.
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
Probably the most famous hospital-acquired infection or 'superbug', MRSA is so-called because of its resistance to the antibiotic methicillin (hence Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureas).
Honey tops the list of antibiotics and is known for its extensive healing properties. The presence of hydrogen peroxide in honey exhibits strong antibacterial properties. In addition, the high sugar content thwarts the growth of bacteria.
What she found "sitting in an envelope in the back of a safe" was a record of the first use of penicillin being used to treat an Australian civilian in 1943 – a year earlier than historians previously claimed.
Every year, thousands of children died of infectious diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis. Before antibiotics infant mortality – deaths of children before their first birthday – was around one in 20. It is now 3.5 deaths per 1000 live births, an astonishing improvement partly down to the discovery of antibiotics.
Using this knowledge, they worked out that early modern humans - the same as us, anatomically - would have lived about 38 years. This is about the same as other early human species, such as Denisovans and Neandarthals.