Koch's postulates
E52536
Koch's postulates are a set of criteria formulated in the late 19th century to establish a causal relationship between a specific microorganism and a particular disease.
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
causality criterion
→
concept in microbiology → set of scientific criteria → |
| appliedTo |
Bacillus anthracis and anthrax
→
Mycobacterium tuberculosis and tuberculosis → Vibrio cholerae and cholera → |
| appliesTo |
infectious diseases
→
|
| assumes |
availability of pure culture techniques
→
existence of susceptible experimental hosts → one pathogen causes one disease → |
| category |
scientific methodology
→
|
| componentOf |
classical bacteriology curriculum
→
|
| countryOfOrigin |
Germany
→
|
| criterion |
the cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy susceptible host
→
the microorganism must be found in all organisms suffering from the disease but not in healthy organisms → the microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture → the microorganism must be re-isolated from the experimentally infected host and identified as being identical to the original agent → |
| criticizedFor |
ethical issues with deliberate infection of hosts
→
oversimplifying host–pathogen interactions → |
| epistemicRole |
criteria for inferring causation in infectious disease
→
|
| field |
epidemiology
→
infectious disease → microbiology → |
| formulatedBy |
Robert Koch
→
|
| formulatedIn |
late 19th century
→
|
| goal |
establish causal relationship between microorganism and disease
→
|
| historicalPeriod |
bacteriological era
→
|
| impact |
foundation of modern medical microbiology
→
standardized experimental approach to linking microbes and diseases → |
| influencedBy |
germ theory of disease
→
|
| involves |
experimental infection of a healthy host
→
isolation of pathogen → re-isolation and identification of the same pathogen → |
| limitation |
do not easily apply to diseases with asymptomatic carriers
→
do not easily apply to non-infectious multifactorial diseases → do not easily apply to obligate intracellular pathogens → do not easily apply to polymicrobial diseases → do not easily apply to viruses → |
| namedAfter |
Robert Koch
→
|
| relatedConcept |
Bradford Hill criteria
→
molecular Koch's postulates → |
| status |
historically important but not universally applicable
→
|
| teaches |
importance of experimental controls in disease causation studies
→
|
| usedFor |
demonstrating that a specific microbe causes a specific disease
→
experimental proof of pathogenicity → |
Referenced by (3)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Robert Koch
→
Robert Koch → |
knownFor |
|
Robert Koch
→
|
developed |