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Home , Robert Koch

Robert Koch The Father of Clinical

t the age of five, During the late 1860s, Koch Robert Koch worked as an Assistant in the Aastounded his parents General Hospital at Hamburg and by telling them that he had began a general practice. He then taught himself to read with the passed his District Medical By Kerry Pierce, MS aid of a newspaper. This feat Officer's Examination, and in merely foreshadowed the 1870, he volunteered for service intelligence and tenacity which in the Franco-Prussian war where

were to be so characteristic of he served as District Medical Officer for Wollstein, Prussian Kerry Pierce is a Technical Koch in his adult life. The oldest of thirteen children fathered by a Polland from 1872 to 1880. It Support Representative at was at Wollstein that he carried mining authority, Robert Koch Hardy Diagnostics. out his epoch-making research was born on , 1843 She earned her Bachelor’s at Clausthal in the Upper Harz and Master’s Degrees at Mountains in the northwestern Florida State University in region of . Tallahassee. Her studies were focused on molecular At the age of nineteen, Koch

microbiology. went to study at the

Before joining Hardy, Kerry University of Göttingen under held several college level the Professor of Anatomy, teaching positions for Friedrich Gustgav Jacob Henle. and microbiology. Henle, who in 1840 had published that diseases were Kerry takes pride in serving caused by living, parasitic and assisting customers at organisms, no doubt strongly Hardy Diagnostics and has influenced Koch. Consequently, become involved in various after completing his M.D. in

writing and training 1866 and marrying the mother assignments. (Emmy Fraats) of his only child (Gertrud b. 1865), Koch traveled to for six months to study chemistry under the influence of In a 1939 movie, Koch was depicted Virchow. as the "Battler of Death". which placed him at the forefront when growth sensation, yet he continued to of the scientific community. conditions improved. Though work at Wollstein for four more Koch knew that the bacilli were years, improving his methods of At that time, was quite fragile and could not fixing, staining and prevalent among farm animals in survive outside a host for very photographing and the Wollstein district. Although long, he knew they could build studying diseases caused by limited by the lack of equipment, persistent endospores that could bacterial of wounds. cut off entirely from libraries and survive adverse conditions and contact with the scientific maintain their ability to In 1878, he published his results community, and under the rigors disease. Consequently, these and provided, as he had done of his own busy practice, Koch endospores, common to sand and with his anthrax work, a practical set out to study this disease. soil, were the causative agent of and scientific basis for the control the spontaneous anthrax of these infections. Using a microscope given to him outbreaks. by his wife, his tiny flat became Koch continued to work without his early laboratory. Pollender, adequate quarters or conditions Rayer and Davaine had already until 1880, when he was discovered the anthrax bacillus appointed a member of the and Koch set out to prove Reichs-Gesundheitsamt, or scientifically that this bacterium Imperial Health Bureau, in was the causative agent of Berlin. There, he was provided disease. Davaine had previously with a laboratory in which he demonstrated the direct could work with his assistants, transmission of Bacillus Loeffler, Gaffkey and others. It anthracis by inoculating mice was here that Koch began to with anthrax bacilli taken from refine his bacteriological the spleens of farm animals that methods and where he invented had died of the disease. He new methods for cultivating pure quickly discovered that these cultures of bacteria on solid mice, too, were killed by the media such as , and on bacilli. He compared these media (invented by his assistant, diseased mice to disease-free Fannie Hesse) kept in a flat dish mice inoculated at the same time Koch demonstrated this invented by his assistant, Julius with blood from the spleens of painstaking work to Ferdinand Richard Petri. He later developed healthy animals. This confirmed Cohn, Professor of Botany at the new staining methods to improve the earlier work of his colleagues. University of Breslau, who called the visualization and a meeting of his colleagues to identification of bacteria. However, this didn’t satisfy witness this demonstration. Koch’s keen sense of curiosity. Among the colleagues in attendance was He wanted to determine whether anthrax bacilli that had never Professor Cohnheim, Professor of At a time when people still thought most been in contact with any animal diseases were caused by poisonous “bad could also cause disease. To do Pathological Anatomy. Cohn and air”, Koch discovered the pathogens of this, he developed techniques to many infectious diseases, including obtain pure cultures of bacilli. He Cohnheim were deeply impressed by , sleeping sickness, and also noted the formation of . spores inside the bacterium when Koch’s work, and in growth conditions became 1876, Cohn published The result of all his work was the unfavorable--especially when Koch’s work on anthrax in the introduction of methods used to oxygen was lacking--and the botanical journal where he was obtain pure cultures, free from resulting germination of these editor. Koch became an instant other organisms, and to detect studies. He continued to work on was appointed Surgeon General and identify pathogenic bacteria. cholera when he returned to of Berlin and, in 1891, became In addition, in 1881 he urged for Germany and later when he an Honorary Professor and the sterilization of medical traveled to India. Director of the new Institute for instruments using heat. Infectious Diseases there. It was Using his knowledge of the mode at the Institute that he was Koch also laid down the of distribution of the cholera fortunate to serve among such foundation of what is now known vibrio and his understanding of contemporaries as , as Koch’s postulates; criteria its life cycle, Koch formulated and Kitasato which are required before guidelines for the control of Shibasaburo, who themselves accepting that particular bacteria cholera epidemics which were made great discoveries in cause particular diseases: (1) the approved in 1893 by the Great . must be found in Powers in Dresden. abundance in all organisms During this time, Koch returned suffering from the disease, but Consequently, these guidelines to his early work on tuberculosis not in healthy organisms; (2) the formed the basis of control and sought to arrest the disease microorganism must be isolated methods which are still in use by means of a potion, which he from a diseased organism and today. His work on cholera, for termed , made from grown in pure culture; (3) the which Koch won a prize of pure cultures of the tubercle cultured microorganism should 100,000 German Marks, also bacilli. During the mid-19th cause disease when introduced became an important influence century, tuberculosis was the into a healthy organism; (4) the on plans for the conservation of cause of one in seven deaths microorganism must be re- municipal drinking water throughout Europe and Koch was isolated from the inoculated, supplies. determined to find a cure. Koch diseased experimental host and concocted two mixtures, called identified as being identical to the old and new tuberculin, and his original specific causative agent. first communication on the old tuberculin aroused considerable Two years after Koch’s arrival in controversy. He claimed that a Berlin, he discovered the tubercle healing power would be obtained bacillus ( from this preparation, but tuberculosis) and a method for unfortunately this was greatly growing this bacterium in pure exaggerated and, when the culture. He later published his mixture failed to perform as work in 1882, and in 1883, he expected, public opinion was was still working on tuberculosis critical of both Koch and his when he was sent, along with a potion. French research team, to Alexandria, Egypt as Leader of Undaunted by skepticism, Koch the German Cholera Commission announced the new tuberculin in to investigate an outbreak of 1896. The curative value of this cholera. mixture was also disappointing; In 1885, Koch While in Egypt, he independently became the newly discovered the vibrio that causes appointed Professor Koch’s famous postulates are still relevant cholera (it had been previously of Hygiene and for today… isolated by an Italian anatomist Director of the newly named Filippo Paccini in 1854, established Institute 1. Identify a specific organism. but ignored at that time) and of Hygiene at the 2. Obtain a pure culture of that organism. isolated pure cultures of this University of Berlin. 3. Reproduce the disease in experimental bacterium on which to focus his Five years later, he animals using the pure culture. 4. Recover the organism from the infected animals. nevertheless, its invention led to Koch’s revised view. Around the where he discovered that atoxyl the discovery of new substances same time, Koch’s work on is an effective agent against with diagnostic value. typhus (Rickettsia spp.) led to trypanosomiasis. During this time, Koch’s new control measures for safer colleagues at the Institute of sanitary practices when he Infectious Diseases, Ehrlich, von showed that the disease was Behring and Kitasato, carried out transmitted from man to man and published their epoch- more so than from contaminated making work on the drinking water. of while the quality of Koch’s work began to decline. In December of 1904, Koch Koch traveled to South Africa in resigned from his Directorship at 1896 to study the origins of the Institute for Infectious rinderpest--an infectious viral Diseases and traveled to German disease of cattle, domestic East Africa to study East Coast buffalo, and some species of fever in cattle. He made wildlife that is commonly important observations on this referred to as cattle plague or disease, as well as on pathogenic steppe murrain. Although he did species of Babesia and not identify the causative agent Trypanosoma and on tickborne A promotional poster from the of this disease, he succeeded in spirochaetosis, and he continued 1939 movie commemorating limiting the outbreak by injecting his work with these after he Koch’s life and accomplishments. the bile from the gall bladders of returned home. infected animals into healthy Dr. Koch died on the 27th of May farm-stock. 1910 of a heart-attack in Baden- Baden at the age of 66. During He later traveled to India and his lifetime, he was the recipient Africa where he worked on of many prizes and medals, , blackwater fever, surra honorary doctorates. The of cattle and horses and plague students he mentored throughout and he published his observations his career found organisms on these diseases in 1898. Shortly responsible for diseases such as after his return to Germany, diphtheria, typhoid, pneumonia, Koch traveled to Italy and the gonorrhea, cerebrospinal tropics where he studied the meningitis, leprosy, bubonic etiology of malaria and its plague, tetanus, and syphilis, control with quinine. among others, by using his Koch and his wife, Emmy, upon receiving the in 1905. methods. Furthermore, he was In his later years, Koch posthumously honored by reformulated his hypothesis on Consequently, in 1905 Koch was memorials and by several tuberculosis and came to the awarded the Nobel Prize for countries for his contributions to conclusion that the bacterium that or Medicine for his medicine and microbiology. caused the human and bovine findings on tuberculosis and, in He inspired major figures such as forms were not identical. His 1906, Koch returned to Central Paul Ehrlich and Gerhard statement of these new findings Africa to continue his work on Domagk and he will forever be at the International Medical the control of human considered one of the founders of Congress on Tuberculosis in trypanosomiasis. It was in modern microbiology. London in 1901 resulted in much Central Africa that Koch controversy and opposition, but expanded his experimental work contemporary research on on bacteriology and serology and tuberculosis has since confirmed Koch Crater on the Moon was Perhaps Dr. Koch’s greatest gift named in his honor and the lives on every day as physicians, Robert Koch Prize and Medal microbiologists, researchers, and were created to honor scientists students utilize the same who make groundbreaking scientific techniques that Koch discoveries or who contribute to developed over 120 years ago. global health in a unique way such as he did.