Trust me on antibiotics, doctor – I’m a patient | Anne Perkins

Evidence that finishing the course may fuel bacterial resistance will test our relationship with experts - and perhaps begin the healing process

" Anne Perkins is a Guardian columnist

Early in 1941 Albert Alexander, a middle-aged police officer, went to his local hospital - the John Radcliffe, in Oxford - with a nasty infected scratch on his face. Popular legend says the injury was caused by a thorn on a rosebush; others believe that it had been inflicted during a bombing raid on Southampton, where he was on duty in the blitz. PC Alexander is famous in medical history because he was the first patient to be given penicillin, and it didn't work.

Or at least, it did, but only for a time. Although his doctors, Howard Florey and Charles Fletcher, recycled the drug from his urine, there was not enough to treat him for more than four days. At first he rallied, but once the penicillin supply was exhausted, he relapsed. Four weeks later he was dead. Clearly, penicillin needed to be employed in quantity to be sure of destroying the bacteria.

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