A world-famous discovery made by a nurse: The hidden story of antibiotics

We've all used an antibiotic at some point in our lives, right? When we get a bacterial infection, the little pill the doctor gives us is truly amazing. But how many of us know the stories behind these life-saving drugs? While some stories are written in golden letters in history, the stories of some heroes and heroines are covered in the sands of time. Today we're going to talk about one such hidden, but extremely important character. Her name is Mattiedna Johnson.

Who is this Matilda Johnson?

Matilda Johnson is not a microbiologist by profession, she is a nurse. But that did not stop her from helping in the race to find antibiotics that would save millions of lives. Born in 1918 to a poor farming family in Mississippi, Matilda was very good at studying. She finished second in school, later graduated from nursing school and joined the workforce as a registered nurse. At that time, that is, in the 1930s and early 40s, a disease called 'scarlet fever' was spreading very badly in America. It mostly affected young children. In those days, without antibiotics, about 20% of children who contracted this disease died. Imagine how scary that was. One day, in the ward set aside for scarlet fever patients at the hospital where Matilda worked, a small baby died in her arms. She could never forget the incident.

A terminal illness and a ray of hope

By 1944, with World War II looming, pharmaceutical companies were scrambling to develop antibiotics like penicillin. The U.S. War Department had declared the production of penicillin a top priority. It was during this time that she saw an advertisement in the newspaper Matidna and applied to join this research project. CM Christensen, a professor at the University of Minnesota, recruited her. Growing up on a farm, her experience making jelly, butter, and soap was a great help to the scientific process of isolating molds. She worked with many different types of molds. But her special interest was focused on a mold she found in tomato soup. She introduced this mold to the bacteria that causes scarlet fever. The results were very successful. She gave these samples to her superiors, but received no response. In 1946, she left that job to go on missionary work in Liberia. By the end of the decade, the dreaded disease scarlet fever had become easily treatable thanks to antibiotics.

Lack of respect? The "Matilda Effect"

It was only much later that Matidna learned that Pfizer had filed a patent in 1949 for the drug oxytetracycline under the trade name Terramycin. Although it was not the best cure for scarlet fever, it is still a very powerful drug that is used today. The question is: was this drug made from the mold Matidna found in tomato soup? Matidna believed so. Some experts today say that she was not given credit for her discovery. She also believed that the drug was named Terramycin because of her description of "terrible mice." But Pfizer only acknowledges that Matidna was part of the penicillin project. Their patent was credited to three men. This isn't just Matilda. Throughout history, there have been many instances where women who made significant contributions to science have been overlooked. Historian Margaret Rossiter even gave it a name in 1993 - the "Matilda effect." It's the tendency to ignore women's contributions to science or give them credit to men.

A life dedicated to service

Matidna's story doesn't end with her research. Her entire life was dedicated to service. After serving as a missionary in Liberia, she returned to America and settled in Cleveland, where she taught nurses by teaching classes in church basements. She also did another historic job. At the time, her church held about three funerals a week. "We wanted to know why these people were dying," she writes in her book. Imagine, Matidna took a pioneering step in making this 'pressure check' that we can easily do anywhere today. In addition, she stood up strongly against the racist barriers that existed for black nurses at that time. Frustrated by the lack of black representation in the American Nurses Association, she joined with 14 other nurses to found the National Black Nurses Association in 1971. Today, this association has more than 300,000 members. Matidna Johnson died in 2003 at the age of 85. But her story, her dedication, and her service to science and humanity still teach us a great lesson today. Even though she was a nurse, how much impact did she have on a field like microbiology? It shows that there are no limits to our knowledge, talent, and interest. Matilda Johnson, antibiotics, nurse, science, women's contributions, Matilda effect, penicillin, scarlet fever