KOCH’S POSTULATES

Developed agar plates to grow microbial cultures

To prove a disease is caused by a certain microbe, need to ESTABLISH CAUSALITY AND postulates do
that – discovered microbes responsible for tuberculosis and cholera.

4 POSTULATES -
1- Microorganisms must be found in diseased but not healthy individuals
 Not true because healthy may mean has it but asymptomatic **

2- Microorganism must be cultured from diseased individual (proof)

3- Inoculation of a healthy individual with the cultured microorganism must cause the disease
 Some people don’t show symptoms so microorganism there but is just a carrier

4- Microorganism must be re-isolated from inoculated diseased individual and match original
microorganism (crosschecking)

EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF KOCH’S WORK ON ANTHRAX IN SHEEP TO MODERN MEDICINE

Anthrax is a bacterial disease affecting animals including sheep. It can form spores for long periods of
time in soil and remain dormant until an animal comes into contact with it. Koch discovered that the
sheep in farms were walking on soil under which the carcasses of dead sheep had been buried.
These dead sheep had been infected with anthrax. The bacteria thus transferred from their blood
into the soil, where it formed spores. Sheep walking on this soil then came into contact with it and
the bacteria invaded their bodies.

He used a microscope to find the bacteria in the blood of sheep who had contracted it after walking
on the soil under which dead, infected sheep were buried. This helped Koch discover that a bacterial
microbe was responsible for this disease. This then introduced a new branch of science: bacteriology,
which included the investigation of pathogenic bacteria in infectious-disease.

This helped modern medicine as now, we are aware of diseases caused by certain bacterial species
and thus, by knowing that they are the cause, we can develop treatments specific to them to treat
the disease (antibiotics with ingredients targeting specific pathogenic species of bacteria).
PASTEUR
Investigated fermentation to prove it’s a biological process.

Developed pasteurisation

Developed vaccine for cholera

Provided basis for treatment, prevention and immunisation understanding

SWAN-NECK EXPERIMENT
He heated the broth with the flask open

He then closed the flask.

The microbes carried in the air were trapped in the bottom of the swan-neck so they were
separated from the broth and hence didn’t contaminate it.

If the flask had been left open, more air would enter, carrying microbes. These microbes
would have accumulated and pushed up the swan neck, hence contaminating the broth.

Also, if the flask had been tilted while closed, the broth would have reached the bottom of
the swan-neck where the microbes where and would have become contaminated.

This helped disprove spontaneous generation as the theory for disease cause and helped
prove germ theory by showing that microbes causing illness can be carried in the air.

This helped advance our understanding of the causes of disease, away from superstition
and towards microorganisms.

He also helped develop vaccines for smallpox and cholera, which advanced our
understanding of how to prevent spread of disease. This helped also with developing
treatments.

He let the weakened cholera bacteria enter a host and saw that the immune system could
fight it. This helped develop vaccines.

JUSTIFY THE IMPORTANCE OF PASTEUR’S FLASK EXPERIMENT IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE

NATURE OF DISEASE.

Pasteur’s flask experiment involved heating broth in an open swan-neck flask that then was closed
after the heating process. This means that, while the broth was being heated, microbes from the air
were also entering the flask. However, when the flask was closed, no more microbes could enter the
flask. Because the neck of the flask is like a swan-neck, the microbes stayed at the bottom of the
neck, separated from the body of the flask itself so they couldn’t reach the broth.

If the flask is tilted, the broth will flow into the bottom part of the swan-neck and come into contact
with the microbes there. Thus, the microbes contaminate the broth. Similarly, if the flask is left open
for a long time after heating the broth, more air enters and it carries microbes with it. This
accumulation of microbes push the up against the swan-neck and enter the body, contaminating the
broth.
These observations from his experiments helped disprove the spontaneous generation theory and
prove germ theory for disease. He helped demonstrate the microbes can be carried through the air
and if some are pathogenic, they can cause disease by entering food, water or even directly into the
host themself.

Previously, our understanding of the nature of disease had been that it is spontaneously brought
about by bad deeds or by demonic presences. That is, we associated disease with theocentric beliefs.
Thanks to Pasteur’s flask experiments and many others’ contributions, we now know that disease is
caused by certain microbes that invade and damage hosts.

EVALUATE THE CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY PASTEUR AND KOCH TO OUR PRESENT UNDERSTANDING
OF THE CAUSES AND POSSIBLE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES. (8 MARKS)

1 mk = previous thoughts on causes

1 mk = previous thoughts on prevention

1 mk = Pasteur experiment

2 mk = how Pasteur changed cause and prevention

1 mk = Koch postulate and anthrax

2 mk = how Koch changed cause and prevention

Previously, it was thought that infectious diseases were caused by spontaneous generation, so they
were suddenly brought about by bad auras and bad deeds, especially amongst those in poverty. It
was also thought that, to prevent disease, the bad aura had to be removed through methods such as
draining the “bad blood” out of the infected. These were false beliefs.

Pasteur conducted experiments where he heated broth in an open swan-neck flask and then closed
it. Air carrying microbes could enter the bottle while it was open but it would rest at the bottom of
the swan-neck, separated from the broth (due to gravity). If the bottle was tilted so that the broth
could flow into the bottom swan-neck part, the microbes could contaminate the broth. If the bottle
was left open after heating, more microbes entered and the accumulation of them helped them push
up the bottom of the swan-neck and enter the flask’s body, contaminating the broth. If the flask was
closed after heating and not tilted, the broth would not be contaminated as it would not come into
contact with the microbes at the bottom.

These findings helped Pasteur prove that certain agents carried in the air can cause illness. This
helped disprove spontaneous generation and prove germ theory for disease. Because of this, now we
understand that pathogenic microbes carried in air can enter food, water (then ingested by the
individual, allowing the host to invade their body) or the host itself, and this is what causes disease.
This then helped develop methods to prevent disease, also thanks to Pasteur’s other work. He also
investigated smallpox and cholera and found that, by inserting weakened or dead pathogens causing
the disease into individuals without it, they can then become immunised to the disease if it invades
their body later on. This helped the development of safer vaccines to immunise individuals and thus
prevent infection with disease.

Koch developed postulates to prove and cross check that certain microorganisms cause disease:

- The microorganism must not be present in healthy individuals but present in ill individuals
 - If microorganism taken out of a host and inoculates a second host, second host must have
same symptoms as first host
- The microorganism from the second host, when taken out, should be the same as before it
invaded the host
- The microorganism must be cultured from the ill individual

There are some problems with these, such as that some infected persons can be asymptomatic
carriers and hence not show symptoms, or show different symptoms to others. However, these
postulates helped prove which microbes cause which diseases and then cross check that proof. This
helped further our understanding of what causes disease.

He also worked on cholera and anthrax and helped find how the microbes are transmitted between
sheep for anthrax. He found that the contaminated blood of dead infected sheep buried under the
soil can then allow microbes from that blood to the soil. When other sheep walk on that soil, they
can contract the microbes and get the disease. Discovering the mode of transmission helped develop
methods to prevent that transmission, as farmers then new to isolate their sheep from areas where
previously infected sheep had been buried. From this, quarantine practices also developed to isolate
infected individuals form uninfected individuals. This helped prevent transmission of disease.