The Cause of TB

On March 24, 1882, Robert Koch shared his discovery of the bacteria causing tuberculosis (TB). Robert started as a physician and studying anthrax but started his work on TB during a bad wave in Germany in 1881. He started by wanting to find the organism causing TB. First, he obtained samples of TB from patients and injected them into guinea pigs. Then, he created a new staining technique using alkali metals to visualize the shape of the bacteria.

After discovering a bacterium that is associated with TB, he started to test to see if it was present in tissue samples from every TB patient. He was then able to see the number of bacteria as the disease progressed; less bacteria when the patient was recovering and more when the patient was getting worse.

This discovery of the bacteria helped him as he attempted to grow it himself. It took many weeks of trial and error, but eventually, when he injected it into more guinea pigs, they developed the disease meaning he had succeeded and found the cause of tuberculosis! On March 24, he presented his findings before the Berlin Physiological Society. To read more about this topic, click here!

Wanna chat? Email Loren Vale at lv090923@ohio.edu