Why Did We Do That?

BBC Radio 4, 14 February, 8 to 8 30 pm

Rating:

Public awareness of antibiotic resistance is perhaps higher than any other aspect of health, possibly with the exception of cancer. The tabloid newspapers lambast dirty hospitals infested with resistant “killer bugs.” History, however, is often forgotten. Stepping back a generation, doctors were familiar with hospital wards full of patients succumbing to sepsis in the pre-penicillin era. Indeed, a finger run down the roll of honour of any first world war regiment often testifies to as many who “died from wounds” as were killed in …