Penicillin is a foundational antibiotic belonging to the beta-lactam class. While it revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections, its widespread use following its introduction led to the emergence of significant antibiotic resistance.
“But almost as soon as physicians started using penicillin, Staph started becoming resistant to it. That is what Staph did. They produced this enzyme called penicillinase that disabled the penicillin antibiotic.”