-DUBEY, PRAVEEN KUMAR

 The germ theory of disease, also called

the pathogenic theory of medicine, is
a theory that proposes that
microorganisms are the cause of many
diseases.


 Causal structure of the germ theory of disease.
 Several theories were advanced form time
to time to explain disease causation such as
the supernatural theory of disease, the
theory of humors by Greeks and Indians, the
theory of contagion, the miasmatic theory
which attributed disease to noxious air and
vapors, the theory of spontaneous
generation (abiogenesis) etc. The
breakthrough came in 1860, when the
French bactieriologist Louis Pasteur (1822-
1895) demonstrated the presence of
bacteria in air. He disapproved the theory of
“spontaneous generation”.
 Louis Pasteur demonstrated between 1860 and
1864 that fermentation and the growth of
microorganisms in nutrient broths did not
proceed by spontaneous generation. He
exposed freshly boiled broths to air in vessels
that contained a filter to stop all particles
passing through to the growth medium: and
even with no filter at all, with air being admitted
via a long tortuous tube that would not pass
dust particles. Nothing grew in the broths unless
the flasks were broken open; therefore, the
living organisms that grew in such broths came
from outside, as spores on dust, rather than
spontaneously generated within the broth.
 Robert Koch was the first scientist to devise a series of
proofs used to verify the Germ Theory of Disease. Koch's
postulates were first used in 1875 to demonstrate
anthrax was caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis.
Koch’s postulates are as follows:
 The microorganism must be found in abundance in all
organisms suffering from the disease, but should not be
found in healthy animals.
 The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased
organism and grown in pure culture.
 The cultured microorganism should cause disease when
introduced into a healthy organism.
 The microorganism must be reisolated from the
inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as
being identical to the original specific causative agent.
 These postulates are still used today to help determine
if a newly discovered disease is caused by a
microorganism.
 The discoveries of Pasteur and Koch
confirmed the germ theory of disease. It
was the golden age in bacteriology.
Microbe after microbe was discovered in
quick succession- gonococcus in 1847,
typhoid bacillus, pneumococcal in 1880,
tubercule bacillus in 1882, cholera vibrio
in 1883, diphtheria bacillus in 1884.
The concept of cause embodied in
the germ theory of disease is
generally referred to as a one-to-one
relationship between causal agent
and disease. The disease model
accordingly is:
Disease agent  man  disease
 The germ theory of disease, though it was
revolutionary concept, led many
epidemiologists to take one sided view of
disease causation. That is, they could not
think beyond the germ theory of disease. It is
now recognized that a disease is rarely caused
by a single agent alone, but rather depends
upon a number of factors which contribute to
its occurrence. This demanded a broader
concept of disease causation that synthesized
the basic factors of agent, host and
environment (epidemiological triad).
PARK’S TEXTBOOK OF PREVENTIVE
AND SOCIAL MEDICINE – K.PARK
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germ_theory
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top