In the late 1800s, a researcher by the name of Robert Koch developed a series of postulates (guidelines) that can be used to pro
ve that a given pathogen is the true cause of a disease. Koch's Postulates
1. The suspected causative agent must be found in every case of the disease and be absent from healthy hosts.
2. The agent must be isolated and grown outside the host.
3. When the agent is introduced to a healthy, susceptible host, the host must get the disease.
4. The same agent must be found in the diseased experimental host.
Which of the following steps does NOT follow one of Koch's postulates?
Pick step that does NOT follow the postulates.
a) You are able to isolate a pathogenic bacterium from someone with a new type of pharyngitis.
b) You collect a throat swab from a family member who has also become sick.
c) A mouse that was exposed to a potential viral pathogen has died and you are able to isolate the virus from the liver of the mouse.
d) You give a patient an antibiotic to treat an infection.
d) You give a patient an antibiotic to treat an infection.
Explanation:
Robert Koch is regarded as one of the fathers of modern bacteriology. This researcher discovered the anthrax bacterium and its transmission cycle. In 1884, Koch and Loeffler developed a series of rules that helped to understand the existing associations between a microbe and a disease. Koch used these rules to explain the causative relationships for two different diseases (tuberculosis and cholera); however, these postulates can be indistinctly used to explain the etiology of other diseases caused by both bacteria and viruses.
