8) Germ theory of disease

slides 19-23

What is the Germ theory?

Microorganisms (pathogens) cause specific diseases

How did Pasteur’s experiment with the S flask apply to the real world?

showed microbes are in the air, can spoil food, and cause animal diseases

until the 1860s, people would die from?

microbial infections than the actual surgery, handwashing uncommon at the time :(

What surgeon was inspired by Louis Pasteur’s discovery and used phenol, a chemical antiseptic to precent surgical wound infections?

Joseph Lister in 1865

What is phenol?

carbolic acid, used as a disinfectant towards bacteria

Who found a bacterium causes anthrax and created Koch’s postulates to show specific microbes can cause certain diseases

Robert Koch in 1876

What is Koch’s postulate?

set of four criteria established by Robert Koch to determine if a specific microbe causes a particular disease