The role of the media in influencing public attitudes to penicillin during World War II
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemAutor
Shama, GilbertEditorial
Universidad de Granada
Materia
Penicillin World War II Radio broadcasts Press reports Homemade penicillin Vivicillin Penicilina II Guerra Mundial Radio Prensa Penicilina casera Vivicilina
Fecha
2015Referencia bibliográfica
Shama, G. «The Role of the Media in Influencing Public Attitudes to Penicillin During World War II». Dynamis: Acta Hispanica Ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam, Vol. 35, Núm. 1, 1, p. 131-52. [http://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S0211-95362015000100006]
Resumen
Penicillin’s trajectory towards becoming an effective antibacterial chemotherapeutic
agent took place during World War II. Its strategic military value was immediately recognised
by the Allies, and mass production was undertaken with the prime objective of meeting
the needs of the armed forces. News of its development came to be widely reported on in
the media and is examined here. These reports frequently combined accounts of penicillin’s
prodigious clinical effectiveness with the fact that it was to remain unavailable to the civilian
population essentially until the war had ended. More penicillin was to be made available to
the civilian population in the United States than in Britain, but the sense that it was severely
rationed remained as high. It was in response to this that the idea of «homemade penicillin»
was hatched. News of this was also widely promulgated by both the British and American
media. Although the numbers treated with penicillin produced in this way was never to be
significant, knowledge of the existence of such endeavours may have served to assuage in some
measure the feelings of frustration felt by the civilian population at penicillin’s non-availability.