LY Med's video: Nobel Prizes Explained: The Cause of the White Plague

Want to support the channel? Be a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/LYMED Subscribe for future videos in this series! One of the heaviest hitters when it comes to infectious disease is tuberculosis, or TB. Caused by the pathogen mycobacterium tuberculosis, TB has been with us for thousands of years. Signs of TB have been seen in mummies and over the course of history, it became known as the White Plague. Between 1600-1800s in Europe, TB was thought to have caused 25% of all deaths.Books, plays, poems, art, was made about TB. Even today it kills over 1 Miillion people each year and is globally in the top 10 of all causes of death. How does TB work? Well TB is an airborne infectious disease. Highly aerobic, meaning it requires to survive, it thrives in the lung, where it causes symptoms such as fever, cough, chest pain, weight loss,. However, it can spread to virtually any organ or area in the body. The cause of TB was not known for a long time. Enter Robert Koch. Heinrich Robert Koch was a German doctor born in 1843. Unlike some of the other Nobel prize winners we have discussed, Koch was very much focused on academics and medicine from an early age, and graduated with honors at the highest distinction. As one of the founders of bacteriology, or study of bacteria, he identified that I t was bacteria that caused illness such as cholera, and anthrax and give birth to the concept of infectious diseases. His ability to isolate and grow bacteria rejected the idea held during that time of “spontaneous generation” or the idea that living organisms could spontaneously arise from matter. His work with bacteria included and improved on many techniques, including fixing, staining, and photographing bacteria – allowing greater ability to visualize and reproduce his works. Now there was many hypothesis of what caused TB at that time – some thought it was due to poor air, some due to unbalanced chi, some as a punishment from those that strayed far from God. In1882 he would make his groundbreaking discovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis a s the causative agent of TB by finding a physical known agent - this led the way to developing future treatments for it. Later in his career, he would be sent to many different countries to investigate out breaks and work on containment, from malaria, to typhoid fever, and tickborne illnesses. However, it was for his work on identifying the cause of the white plague that earned him the Nobel Prize in 1905. Disclaimer: These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any LY Med video.