Koch on etiology of TBIn 1882, German scientist Robert Koch published an article* entitled Die Aetiolgie der Tuberculose (The Etiology of Tuberculosis), three weeks after he had announced, on 24 Mar 1882, to the Berlin Physiological Society that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis. He published an expanded version under the same title in 1884, in which he first presented “Koch's postulates,” which now have been generalized and fundamental in the study of a cause of an infectious disease. Namely, he had found the bacillus present in all cases of the disease, had isolated and cultured the microorganism, with which he had caused the disease by using it to inoculate and infect a new host, and identified the same microorganism from the diseased host. Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1905.«*Koch R. Die Atiologic der Tuberkulose, Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift 1882; 15:221-30. [Image: Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli, stained red.] |
