Tuberculosis bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
Bacilo de la tuberculosis
- Date
- 1882 · confidence high
- Place
- Imperial Health Office, Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Robert Koch
- People
- 👤 Robert Koch1843–1910
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Using new staining techniques he identified the agent of the disease that caused one in seven deaths in Europe. Announced on 24 March 1882, it was the definitive triumph of germ theory.
Nobel Prize 1905.
What it led to
- sanatoriums and public health measures against TB
- tuberculin and the diagnostic test
- the BCG vaccine (1921)
- streptomycin (1943)
Built on
- Anthrax bacillus and Koch's postulates1876
- Agar as a microbial culture medium (Hesse and Koch)1881-1882
- contagiousness demonstrated by Villemin (1865)
Made possible
- tuberculin test
- BCG (vaccine)