Robert Koch and bacteria

• • Koch was a German scientist who read Pasteur's work on bacteria causing disease
  • he started to study microbes
• • Koch developed new method of growing bacteria using agar jelly in Petri dish
  • he used dye to stain bacteria so it could be seen under microscope
  • this allowed him to identify specific bacteria
• • Koch proved Pasteur's theory, that microbes caused disease as well as decay
  • in 1876, he found the bacteria that cause anthrax
  • in 1882, he identified the bacteria that cause tuberculosis
  • in 1883, he discovered the bacteria that cause cholera
• • Koch's research inspired other scientists
  • their work led to discovery of more bacteria that cause diseases such as diphtheria and pneumonia
  • his work improved medicine in Britain
  • doctors understood bacteria caused symptoms of disease, so bacteris needed to be removed
• • Koch's identification of bacteria did not make immediate difference on prevention of disease
  • this only happened what Pasteur used Koch's work to develop other vaccines
• • Pasteur used Koch's identification of individual bacteria for specific diseases
  • he used help from Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccine
  • he came to conclusion that to prevent each disease, a weakened dose of disease was needed to build immunity
  • he was able to test a human vaccine for rabies which saved a life
  • this was the first successful vaccine since smallpox vaccine