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01 / 05
Heroes of Progress, Pt. 6: Alexander Fleming

Blog Post | Sickness & Disease

Heroes of Progress, Pt. 6: Alexander Fleming

Introducing the man who discovered penicillin, Alexander Fleming.

Today is the sixth installment of a new series of articles by HumanProgress.org titled, The Heroes of Progress. This bi-weekly column provides a short introduction to unsung heroes who have made an extraordinary contribution to the wellbeing of humanity. You can find the 5th part of this series here.

Our sixth Hero of Progress is Alexander Fleming, the man who first discovered penicillin. Fleming’s discovery paved the way for the invention of antibiotic drugs, which have been credited with saving over 80 million lives so far.

Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881, in Ayrshire, Scotland. At the age of 13, Fleming moved to London to attend the Royal Polytechnic Institution. After inheriting some money from a dying uncle at the age of 21, he enrolled at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. Fleming graduated with distinction in 1906 and stayed at the medical school as a researcher of bacteriology under Sir Almroth Wright – a pioneer in vaccine therapy and immunology.

When World War One began, Fleming enrolled in the Army Medical Corps. He returned to St. Mary’s to work as a lecturer in 1918. However, it would be another 10 years before his world-changing discovery.

On 3rd September 1928, Fleming returned to his lab having spent August on a holiday with his family. Fleming was notorious for his messy lab. Upon returning from a long vacation in 1928, he discovered that he had left out petri dishes of staphylococci, a common bacterium found in 25 percent of healthy people. Upon investigation, he noticed that the bacteria were infected and destroyed by a fungus, which he identified as being from the genus Penicillium. Further investigations revealed that penicillin destroys bacteria by attacking its cell wall and interfering with its ability to reproduce.

Penicillin was able to fight all gram-positive bacteria (a type of bacteria with a more penetrable cell wall), which includes those that cause diphtheria, meningitis, scarlet fever and pneumonia.

Fleming published his discovery in 1929 in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology. However, little attention was paid to his findings at the time. He continued with his experiments but found that cultivation of penicillin was difficult. After having grown the mold, isolating the antibiotic agent proved strenuous. Lacking the funds and manpower needed for more in-depth research, Fleming abandoned his pursuit after a series of inconclusive experiments.

During World War Two, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain from Oxford University managed to get a carefully preserved strain of Fleming’s penicillin. Florey and Chain began large-scale research, hoping to be able to mass-produce the antibiotic.

Mass production began after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and by D-Day in 1944, enough penicillin had been produced to treat all wounded allied troops.

In 1944, Fleming was knighted by King George VI and became “Sir Alexander Fleming.” The next year Fleming, Florey and Chain jointly won the Nobel Prize for their contribution to developing the antibiotic.

Looking back on the day of his discovery, Fleming once said, “One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up… I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic or bacteria killer. But I suppose that’s exactly what I did.”

Later in life Fleming was decorated with numerous awards: he was an honorary member of almost all medical and scientific societies across the world, he became a “Freeman” of many boroughs and cities, and was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from almost thirty universities across Europe and America. He died aged 73, in 1955.

Fleming’s discovery of penicillin laid the foundation for the development of the antibiotic “wonder drug” that has been credited with saving over 80 million lives. Penicillin revolutionized the medical field and it is likely that most people reading this today have benefited from Fleming’s discovery at some point in their lives. It is for this reason Alexander Fleming deserves to be our sixth Hero of Progress.

National Indigenous Times | Communicable Disease

Eye Disease Trachoma Eliminated in Papua New Guinea

“The World Health Organisation confirmed this week that Papua New Guinea has eliminated the eye disease trachoma as a public health problem.

Official recognition was made during the 78th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland, following a comprehensive review of PNG’s elimination dossier.

Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness. The disease thrives in areas where the water is scarce, and sanitation is poor. The infection is easily spread through personal contact and by flies that have been in contact with people’s eyes or noses. It disproportionately affects mothers and children.”

From National Indigenous Times.

Arab News | Communicable Disease

Indonesia Develops AI System to Help Diagnose Malaria

“Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency is developing an artificial intelligence-powered system to help diagnose malaria under the country’s efforts to eliminate the disease by 2030.

Indonesia recorded over half a million malaria cases in 2024, but due to the lack of testing, the World Health Organization estimates that the actual number was at least twice higher.

‘Our main goal is to create a computer-aided diagnosis system that can automatically recognize malaria status from blood smear images,’ Anto Satriyo Nugroho, head of AI and cyber security at Indonesia’s national research agency, or BRIN, said in a statement.

Such a system would speed up confirmation of malaria, which to date is mostly done through microscopic examination.”

From Arab News.

Los Angeles Times | Communicable Disease

California Officials Unleash Sterile Mosquitoes to Curb Disease

“A battle is underway against an invasive mosquito behind a recent surge in the local spread of dengue fever in Southern California — and officials may have unlocked a powerful tool to help win the day.

Two vector control districts — local agencies tasked with controlling disease-spreading organisms — released thousands of sterile male mosquitoes in select neighborhoods, with one district starting in 2023 and the other beginning the following year…

One agency serving a large swath of Los Angeles County found a nearly 82% reduction in its invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito population in its release area in Sunland-Tujunga last year compared with a control area.

Another district, covering the southwestern corner of San Bernardino County, logged an average decrease of 44% across several heavily infested places where it unleashed the sterile males last year, compared with pre-intervention levels.

Overall invasive mosquito counts dropped 33% across the district — marking the first time in roughly eight years that the population went down instead of up.”

From Los Angeles Times.

World Health Organization | Communicable Disease

Eliminating Malaria in Southeast Asia

“The WHO South-East Asia Region today [5/5/2025] renewed its commitment to eliminate malaria by 2030, with countries pledging accelerated action and greater efforts at the sub-national and community levels…

In 2020, the Region had 5 million estimated cases and 8900 estimated deaths – 80% less cases and 77% less deaths compared to 2010 – and the largest decline in any of the WHO regions.”

From World Health Organization.