Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Koch treated tuberculosis

In 1905, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the great German doctor Koch. In the world of biology, many people have objections to the choice of awarding prizes for research results on tuberculosis. In 1876, Koch found the cause of anthrax; in 1882, Koch discovered the tuberculosis bacterium; in 1884, he confirmed the cholera bacterium; in 1896, he defeated foot-and-mouth disease in South Africa; in 1898, he went to Italy to investigate malaria in children, etc. wait. It can be seen that this physician has indeed made outstanding achievements in the treatment of infectious diseases. However, as a scientist, Koch's contribution was not only the treatment of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, but also the establishment of modern bacteriology methods. Obviously, the methods he created to identify germs and the principles for determining the cause are much more important than the research on tuberculosis. Therefore, it is undoubtedly correct to award Koch the Nobel Prize, but it is inappropriate to choose tuberculosis research as the scientific contribution for the award.

The "Koch's Three Principles" summarized by the great Koch

The first: This bacterium must be constantly related to the pathological symptoms of the disease;

Article 2: You can find this guy in a patient and pull it out, isolate, culture, and purify it;

Article 3: Putting this guy in a healthy animal can also induce the same symptoms and pathological characteristics.

Robert Koch

Robert Koch was born in 1943 in the small town of Clausthal, Hannover, Germany. His father was a mine employee. When he was 5 years old, he told his parents that he could learn to read with the help of newspapers, which foreshadowed his extraordinary wisdom and perseverance. In high school, he showed a strong interest in microbiology. In 1862, he was admitted to the Medical School of the University of G?ttingen. He studied botany, physics and mathematics in the first two semesters, and then transferred to medicine. He was mentored by the anatomist Henle (J). He graduated in 1866, and then served in the army first. He became a doctor in the army and then worked as a doctor in a small town in East Prussia after the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1872, he was recommended to serve in the local health agency in Wollschton, Posen (now Poland). While completing his job, he began his amateur bacteriological research. At that time, bovine anthrax was prevalent in Walschington, and he conducted careful and detailed research on this disease. He found the bacterium that causes anthrax in the spleen of cows, transplanted the bacteria into mice, infected each other with anthrax, and finally re-obtained the same bacteria from the mice that he had obtained from the cow. . This is the first time that humans have used scientific methods to prove that a specific microorganism is the cause of a specific disease. Furthermore, he used serum to successfully grow bacteria outside animals under conditions identical to the body temperature of cattle. He then studied the life history of Bacillus anthracis and discovered the bacilli-spore-bacillus cycle. In 1876, he published his research results in the journal "Plant Biology", which caused great repercussions in the medical community.

Because of this major contribution, Koch was hired to work in the Royal Health Bureau in Berlin, Germany, in 1880, where he received a good laboratory and excellent assistants. In 1881, he invented the "pure culture method of bacteria" using solid culture media and began to study tuberculosis. He studied the lungs of people who died of tuberculosis, but could not find tuberculosis bacteria. However, after grinding the lungs and rubbing them on mice and rabbits, he infected them with tuberculosis. Repeated experiments made him realize that tuberculosis bacteria were probably transparent. It must be dyed to be visible. So he conducted dyeing experiments with various pigments and constantly changed the dyeing methods. Finally, in sample No. 271, he found Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which was dyed with blue pigment and was in the shape of a thin rod. He also used serum culture medium to culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis and obtained artificially cultured Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccines. He made a suspension of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and injected it into the abdominal cavity of guinea pigs. The guinea pigs were infected with tuberculosis and scientifically proved that Mycobacterium tuberculosis was the causative bacterium of tuberculosis. On March 24, 1882, he read out his paper on the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis at the Berlin Physiological Society in Germany, and published the paper in the "Berlin Medical Weekly" on April 10 of the same year, once again causing a sensation in the medical community. After discovering Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Koch further clarified that the transmission route of tuberculosis is air and contact. Koch proposed that in order to conquer tuberculosis, "we must first block the sources of infectious bacteria to the best of our ability. One of these sources is the most important." One of them was the sputum of tuberculosis patients."

In 1883, as a member of the German Cholera Investigation Committee, Koch went to Egypt and India and not only discovered the pathogenic bacteria of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, but also successfully found cholera. Vibrio cross-infection is spread through water, food, clothing and other supplies, and methods to control it have been found.

In 1885, he served as professor of hygiene and bacteriology at the University of Berlin and director of the Institute of Hygiene at the University. In 1886, Koch and Flugge (Flugge. C) jointly founded the "Journal of Hygiene", which is still authoritative today. In 1890 he developed tuberculin and applied it to the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

In order to investigate infectious diseases, Koch went abroad ten times, to Africa, India and the Far East. He successively led a group of students at the Institute of Hygiene and the Institute of Infectious Diseases to study malaria, plague, typhoid, rinderpest, relapsing fever, sleeping sickness and other tropical diseases, and made many new and important discoveries. Nozomi, Kitasato Shibasaburo and other outstanding scientists. In 1891 he was appointed director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases. In 1897, he was elected as a member of the Royal Society. In 1902, he was elected as a foreign academician of the French Academy of Sciences. In 1905, Koch received the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, mainly in recognition of his contribution to the research of tuberculosis.

Based on his experience in isolating pathogenic bacteria, Koch summed up the famous "Koch's Principle". Under the guidance of this principle, the period from the 1870s to the 1920s became a golden age for the discovery of pathogenic bacteria. For example, two scientists independently discovered diphtheria bacilli in 1883 and 1884, typhoid bacilli in 1884, Yersinia pestis in 1894, and dysentery bacilli in 1897. During this period, no less than a hundred pathogenic microorganisms were discovered, including bacteria, protozoa, and actinomycetes. Not only animal pathogenic bacteria, but also plant pathogenic bacteria.

In addition to his foundational work in the confirmation of pathogens, the microbiological methods he founded are still used today, laying a solid foundation for microbiology as an important independent branch of life sciences. Base. The photos left by Koch's pioneering microphotography are still of a high level today. These techniques include isolation and pure culture techniques, culture media techniques, hanging drop specimen examination methods, and tissue section staining methods.

In his later years, Koch came to the conclusion that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis that causes human tuberculosis and that which causes bovine tuberculosis are not exactly the same. Although this view caused a lot of controversy at the time, it has been completely proven to be correct today. . On May 27, 1910, the 67-year-old Koch sat in his armchair and fell asleep peacefully in his apartment in Baden, Germany. His ashes were buried at the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Berlin. The monument is engraved with this poem: From this microscopic world, this superstar emerged; you conquered the world, everyone is grateful to you; the wreaths presented will not wither, the world Will be remembered forever from generation to generation.

The main works of Koch's life include "The Etiology of Anthrax, On the Developmental History of Bacillus Anthracis" (1876), "The Etiology of Wound Infection" (1878), "On Tuberculosis" (1882); Anti-tuberculosis Drugs" (1891), "The Fight against Typhoid Fever" (1902), etc.

On March 24, 1982, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Koch’s discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the World Health Organization and the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease jointly proposed that March 24 be celebrated every year. Today is designated as "World Tuberculosis Day" to commemorate Koch and remind the public of the importance of tuberculosis prevention and control.

On this day, many countries, including our country, issued stamps commemorating the "100th Anniversary of Koch's Discovery of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis". The attached picture is the "100th Anniversary of Koch's Discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis" sheetlet issued by the Democratic Republic of Germany (left picture). Postage The picture shows Koch's portrait and signature. The edge paper pattern is Koch's paper on the discovery of tuberculosis bacilli published in Berlin Medical Weekly on April 10, 1882; the picture on the right is a commemorative stamp issued by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of my country to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his discovery of tuberculosis pathogens