While the Americans were still arguing over penicillin, they were very smart and had a sharp vision. They directly made penicillin the second priority of the country, second only to the development of the atomic bomb.
In 1943, the United States began to supply penicillin to the army in small quantities, but the production cost was extremely high at the time and it could only be used for wounded soldiers in critical condition.
For example, in the first five months of 1943, a total of 500 million units of penicillin were produced. This amount of production could only cure 180 critically ill patients, which shows how low the production of penicillin was.
Low production means a very high price. In 1943, penicillin was sold in the United States for $200 per dose.
If it is shipped to Shanghai at this price, the price will be several times higher.
According to the memoirs of the great man's guards, in 1948, the great man was on a business trip and met a seriously ill little girl on the way who had to be treated with penicillin.
But at that time, the great man only had seven penicillins given to him by Queen Mother Song during the Chongqing negotiations, and there was only one left.
Despite the objections of his health doctor, the great man insisted on giving the last precious penicillin to the little girl, thus saving her life.
From this story we can see that even great men could not get too much penicillin, otherwise the guards would not have recorded it as a big deal.
From this we can see how expensive penicillin would be. The United States cannot even produce much of it, and the price of it shipped to Shanghai and Hong Kong would be astronomical.
50,000 units of penicillin in exchange for a 31.5 gram small yellow croaker, it's that simple.
There are also some scientists in our country who are far-sighted and know the importance of penicillin.
For example, Tang Feifan, a doctor of medicine who studied abroad, successfully developed penicillin containing 50,000 units per bottle in Kunming in 1943.
At that time, the conditions in his penicillin production workshop were extremely difficult.
A broken wooden boat is used as a recycling device and placed in the lake for dialysis; there is no running water, and everything depends on a boiler that needs to be repaired every day; gastric mold is extracted from the stomachs of pigs raised by themselves, etc.
It can be said that the available resources are brought to the extreme, but unfortunately there is no way to mass-produce them. Tang Feifan has been trying to find ways to improve them.
Unfortunately, Dr. Tang died suddenly in 1958 because he was wrongly accused. Some people destroyed their own Great Wall.
Later, another doctor who had studied abroad, Zhang Weishen, successfully returned to China with the penicillin sample given by his mentor. He found materials to replace corn pulp and lactic acid, and officially started small-scale mass production in 1953.
But when it comes to mass production, there are only a dozen employees in a workshop doing manual work, and there is not even a standard production line. It can be seen that the output is so low that it is impossible to supply the whole country.
According to original history, most of the penicillin in the country was smuggled in from Hong Kong.
Penicillin was expensive to begin with, and coupled with smuggling, the country paid a large amount of foreign exchange and gold, which also allowed the bold people in Hong Kong to make a fortune.
As a result, Mr. Huo's family became one of the top wealthy families. He made outstanding contributions to the country, and the country did not treat him unfairly.
Of course, the history of this life deviated because of the appearance of Lin Sanqi. He traveled through time and space and transported at least millions of bottles to this time and space, which greatly alleviated the domestic shortage of antibiotics.
But don't forget that this is a big country with an area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a population of 700 million. Even if you throw millions of bottles of penicillin into it, it won't even cause a splash.
Dean Zhang suddenly thought of something and said solemnly:
"Minister Lin, there is another issue I need to discuss with you. Penicillin has a very high allergy rate, and the number of deaths from anaphylactic shock caused by penicillin injections is very high every year.
In particular, the penicillin produced by the Shanghai Third Pharmaceutical Factory has a high purity and an allergy rate of 15%. This data is very frightening from a clinical perspective. We must pay attention to this."
As soon as these words fell, many people at the symposium started talking about it.
Director Sheng also frowned and sighed:
"What Lao Zhang said is correct. Just now, a medical accident happened in our department. A comrade from our Finance Department died on the spot due to laryngeal edema and difficulty breathing after being injected with penicillin. It is very regrettable.
There is currently no comprehensive adverse drug reaction monitoring system in China, but according to the information I have, the allergy rate for imported penicillin is around 8 points, while that for domestically produced penicillin should be over 15 points.”
Lin Sanqi nodded, thinking that this was normal.
Even in 2016, when technology is highly developed, the penicillin allergy rate is between 1% and 10%.
And either you are not allergic, or if you are allergic, the symptoms are very severe. If it is in a large hospital, it is okay, but if it is in a grassroots hospital that lacks rescue equipment and medicines, it is a dead end.
After Lin Sanqi wrote it down in his notebook, he said helplessly:
"The allergic reactions you mentioned are indeed a problem. Although medicine is not 100% safe, the risk of such a high allergy rate is still too great."
Director Sheng smiled bitterly and said:
"Even if the allergy is high, the cure rate is higher. Choose the lesser of two evils; choose the greater of two benefits. Right now, we're short on antibiotics, so we can't afford to be picky. We're lucky to have any available."
Lin Sanqi thought that in another time and space, the School of Pharmacy of Huadu Medical University had a complete drug library with all the antibiotic formulas and processes in the world.
Since the penicillin allergy rate is so high, it can be replaced with another broad-spectrum antibiotic, such as cephalosporin.
Although there is a certain chance of allergic reaction to cephalexin, it is a low-probability event after all and is completely acceptable.
Thinking of this, Lin Sanqi wrote down the two words "cephalosporin" in his notebook and underlined them twice.
"Director Zhang, besides antibiotics, what other medicines do you think are needed at the grassroots level?"
Dean Zhang pointed to the pharmacy and said:
"As I said just now, aspirin is the treasure of our hospital because it can quickly reduce fever and is also very effective in relieving pain.
As a primary hospital, we mainly treat minor illnesses such as headaches and fevers, but the effects of traditional Chinese medicine are too slow and unstable.
For example, if a patient has a high fever of 40 degrees and is sent to our hospital, if Chinese medicine is used, we need the doctor to prescribe the medicine, prepare the medicine, decoct the medicine, and then cool it down before taking it. This process will take a long time, at least more than 1 hour.
The key is whether the Chinese medicine can guarantee that the fever will go away immediately after drinking it. This depends on luck.
But if I use aspirin tablets, it works in almost half an hour. It is very easy to use and the effect is stable and reliable.
Let me give you another example. Patients who suffer from epileptic convulsions due to high fever are stiff, their faces are ashen, and they keep convulsing. At this time, the only treatment is to reduce the fever and remove the cause of the convulsions.
If we slowly use traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions at this time, it will be too late. By the time you boil the medicine and bring it to the patient, the patient may have died. Therefore, it is best to use Western medicine to calm the patient and reduce the fever and other symptomatic treatments at this time, which will have an immediate effect.
Lin Sanqi nodded. This is actually a drawback of traditional Chinese medicine.
Decades later, there is still a lot of controversy about whether traditional Chinese medicine is useful in emergency situations.
Supporters of traditional Chinese medicine can cite many examples, and we can even often see it in the news: a passenger on a train suddenly falls ill, and a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner steps forward, takes out a few silver needles and gives the patient a few injections, and the patient is cured.
But from a clinical perspective, no hospital in the country offers pure traditional Chinese medicine emergency services.
Even in "TCM specialty hospitals", the emergency department is purely Western medicine, and there are almost no TCM emergency programs. Can you think about why?
So it’s crucial not to look at what they say, but what they do.
Solving this problem is very simple. Just pick up two medicines from the numerous drug libraries.
As for drugs such as aspirin, aminopyrine, and acetaminophen, which are effective but have serious side effects, forget about them.
Mainly focusing on acetaminophen tablets and ibuprofen, they can be fully used in clinical practice.
Lin Sanqi also thought of the "4+7" national centralized procurement of medicines recommended by the country decades later.
A large bottle of ibuprofen, 100 pills, only costs two dollars.
Although in 2016 such cheap drugs were despised by patients and not easily wanted.
But this kind of large-scale, cheap and effective medicine was brought in the 1960s to solve the basic diseases of ordinary people, which is absolutely a great deed.
Thinking of this, Lin Sanqi wrote down in his notebook: antipyretic and analgesic drugs.
Dean Zhang continued:
"In addition, there are common cold medicines and gastrointestinal medicines. Oh, speaking of gastrointestinal medicines, they are actually very urgently needed at our grassroots level.
First of all, let’s talk about enteritis, which is also called stomach upset. Every year, many patients die from diarrhea and dehydration. It is a pity that a minor illness is delayed into a major illness and cannot be cured in the end.
Another one is stomach problems. Minister Lin, you have also seen that although the domestic situation has recovered in recent years, it is still normal for people to not have enough food to eat.
Long-term hunger combined with coarse food led to a high rate of stomach problems among the people. Painful stomachs caused people to break out in cold sweats and completely lost their ability to work. This significantly impacted productivity in factories and rural areas. (End of this chapter)
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