5 Facts About Diseases and Medicine That Sound Like Fiction

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. This content is informational and does not replace professional medical advice.

By Luis Gustavo. See how we research and review our content.

The history of medicine is full of chance discoveries and ideas that seem obvious today but took centuries to be accepted. Here are 5 facts about it.

1. Penicillin was discovered by accident

In 1928, scientist Alexander Fleming noticed that mold had contaminated one of his bacterial culture plates — and around the mold, bacteria weren’t growing. That casual observation led to the development of the first modern antibiotic.

2. Handwashing was once rejected by medicine

In the 19th century, Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis argued that doctors should wash their hands between patients to reduce infections — the idea was ridiculed by colleagues at the time, decades before germ theory became widely accepted.

3. Smallpox has been officially eradicated from the planet

Thanks to a global vaccination campaign, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 — the only human infectious disease ever eliminated worldwide to date.

4. Not every historical “epidemic” had a known cause at the time

Diseases like the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the 14th century, only had their cause (the bacterium Yersinia pestis) scientifically identified centuries later, with the development of modern microbiology.

5. The placebo effect is scientifically documented

Clinical studies show that patients given an inactive treatment (placebo), while believing it’s real, can experience improvement in some symptoms — a phenomenon still used as a control in medical research today.

This topic also connects with excessive sweating and brittle nails, both worth a read.