Editing History of medicine (section)

=== Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance ===
The discovery of [[penicillin]] in the 20th century by [[Alexander Fleming]] provided a vital line of defence against bacterical infections that, without them, often cause patients to suffer prelonged recovery periods and highly increased chances of death. Its discovery and application within medicine allowed previously impossible treatments to take place, including [[Treatment of cancer|cancer treatments]], [[Organ transplantation|organ transplants]], to [[Cardiac surgery|open heart surgery]].<ref name="Hutchings_2019">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hutchings MI, Truman AW, Wilkinson B | title = Antibiotics: past, present and future | journal = Current Opinion in Microbiology | volume = 51 | pages = 72–80 | date = October 2019 | pmid = 31733401 | doi = 10.1016/j.mib.2019.10.008 | s2cid = 208086151 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Throughout the 20th century, though, their overprescribed use to humans,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Dadgostar P | title = Antimicrobial Resistance: Implications and Costs | language = English | journal = Infection and Drug Resistance | volume = 12 | pages = 3903–3910 | date = 2019-12-20 | pmid = 31908502 | pmc = 6929930 | doi = 10.2147/IDR.S234610 | doi-access = free }}</ref> as well as to animals that need them due to the conditions of [[intensive animal farming]],<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Soulsby L | title = Antimicrobials and animal health: a fascinating nexus | journal = The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy | volume = 60 | issue = suppl_1 | pages = i77–i78 | date = August 2007 | pmid = 17656389 | doi = 10.1093/jac/dkm164 }}</ref> has led to the development of [[List of antibiotic-resistant bacteria|antibiotic resistant bacteria]].<ref name="Hutchings_2019" />