Biology, Tuberculosis

Kasey Kasmeier
Biology 103
Mr. Glover
December 12, 2007
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
A German physician named Robert Koch first discovered the bacterial microorganism tubercle bacillus or Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.   He first isolated the bacterium on March 24, 1882.   He then went on to achieve the honor of the Nobel Prize for this discovery in 1905.
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is a rod shaped gram-positive aerobic bacterium that can form branching structures resembling filaments (Gale Enc. Pg. 3005).   The bacteria is slender, straight or slightly curved bacillus, non-motile, non-encapsulated, and does not form spores.   It is aerobic, slow growing, and divides every 18-24 hours.   Also, tuberculosis is resistant to drying and chemical disinfectants, yet it is very sensitive to heat and ultra-violent light.
This bacterium was the cause of the “White Plague” of the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and is the leading cause of the disease Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis spread much more widely in Europe when the industrial revolution began in the late nineteenth century. The disease became widespread somewhat later in the United States, because the movement of the population to large cities made overcrowded housing so common.
One of the most serious diseases in humans is Tuberculosis, a complex disease that mostly strikes the lungs. It is transmitted from person to person through the air. Once the bacterium reaches the lung it establishes colonies, these attract a large immune response that produces granulomas-solid masses of immune cells that trap and destroy the bacteria.   Granulomas remain dormant in the lungs for years: then they can reactivate, triggering a fresh immune reaction that destroys the granulomas and leaves cavities or holes, in the lung (Britannica Online Library,   article-9073667).   As a rule close frequent or prolonged contact is needed to spread the disease.   There is a exception to this rule, Pregnancy.   The fetus of an infected mother may...