Anyone Feeling Sick???

[sistersue]

This is probably a dumb question, but was there penicillan in 1918?

[Bullwinkle]

nope - had to wait for WWII for them to distill the fungus ... related to ergot if my memory serves.

Ergot being of ancient migraine remedy as will as tripping out many a poor serf having just a bit much rye bread in his diet - grin

[Bullwinkle]

A moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria, Illinois market in 1943 was found to contain the best and highest-quality penicillin after a worldwide search.[14] The discovery of the cantaloupe, and the results of fermentation research on corn steep liquor at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, allowed the United States to produce 2.3 million doses in time for the invasion of Normandy in the spring of 1944

from wikipedia - how fun!

[centipede]

There is a letter to the editor in today's Hawaii Tribune-Herald in which the writer is talking about "mandatory" flu vaccinations. The letter is a bit ambiguous, and it may apply only to prisoners (and guards?), but this is an issue that should be addressed with ferocity because it's a can of worms that musn't be opened, and is something that could end up affecting us all.

[Devany]

Another sterling post Bullwinkle! That is one interesting factoid!

quote:

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Originally posted by Bullwinkle

A moldy cantaloupe in a Peoria, Illinois market in 1943 was found to contain the best and highest-quality penicillin after a worldwide search.[14] The discovery of the cantaloupe, and the results of fermentation research on corn steep liquor at the Northern Regional Research Laboratory at Peoria, Illinois, allowed the United States to produce 2.3 million doses in time for the invasion of Normandy in the spring of 1944

from wikipedia - how fun!

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Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com

[centipede]

Last week, I read a column that addressed this bug as the "2009 H1N1" and I'm all for calling it that.

Anyone who'se keeping up on the issue knows that the number of infected and dead continues to increase, and there's a couple of weeks to go before summer ends and much longer before the "flu season" begins. Still nothing to get shrill about, but it is nonetheless disturbing.

[centipede]

For those who didn't read today's Hawaii Tribune-Herald, there is an article that says the virus can still spread after the fever is gone, and the rule of thumb seems to be that you're no longer contagious after the coughing stops. Also, the latest tally for America has more than a million infected and 600 dead.

[centipede]

I just got off the phone with my daughter in Connecticut, who'se an LPN in a pediatrician's office. She agrees that for the time being, this 2009 H1N1 issue (Mexican Flu?) is hype, but she made a few comments that are a bit disturbing. For one, there are "seasonal" ailments that haven't gone away this summer, such a strep throat. There is also an issue (which most people are already aware of) that concerns prescription abuse within the medical profession. One she mentioned was the dispensing of Tamiflu, which is prescribed for non-flu related ailments such as ear infections. She added that her office does not do this, and commented that parents quite often request it (she laughed when I suggested that parents ask for it because the name "Tamiflu" sounds cute). When she was a kid, doctors prescribed antibiotics for everything (I remember her doctor prescribing this liquid pink stuff for everything, and wondered if it was pink because it looked "cute"). When I was a kid, it was penicillin and if you go back far enough in time, it was snails, nails, and puppydog tails. It's all enough to make me "sick".