INFECTIOUS DISEASES DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

ANCIENT HEALTH PRACTICES

ANCIENT DISEASES
 • Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
• scientific method
• the universe is composed of
substances and the
relationships between them

• 1635 – 1703
•microscopy
• “cell”
• Hooke’s Law
John Needham (1713 – 1781)
- briefly boiled broth mixture,
cooled open to room temp,
sealed microbes grew few
days later --- showed that
there was a life force that
produced Spontaneous Lazaro Spallanzani (1729 – 1799) challenged and
Generation contradicted J. Needham’s work
- first to use culture medium - employed longer boiling time, thus, did not have any
for microbial growth microbes grow in his sealed flask
 (1821 – 1902)
"the father of modern pathology“
-cytopathology
- Biogenesis (that living things come only from
Matthias Schleiden (1804 – 1881)
other living things, by reproduction
- Virchow’s triad - all plants are aggregates of
individual cells which are fully
independent
- recognized the importance of the
cell nucleus

Theodor Schwann (1810 – 1882)
- proponent of the Cell Theory
"All living things are composed
of cells and cell products"
- Schwann cells in the PNS
- Pepsin enzyme
- organic nature of yeast
- Invention (metabolism)
CELL THEORY
(Theodor Schwann, Matthias
Schleiden, Rudolf Virchow)
1. All living organisms are
composed of one or more
cells.
2. The cell is the basic unit of
structure, function, and
organization in all organisms.
3. All cells come from pre-
existing cells.

Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823)
"the father of immunology"
"saved more lives than the work
of any other man"
- pioneer of smallpox vaccine
Ferdinand Julius Cohn (1828 – 1898)
- one of the founders of modern bacteriology
- sexuality of Sphaeroplea & Volvox globator
- first to classify algae as plants
-bacterial classification (sphericals, short rods, threads,
spirals)
- Bacillus & its endospore

John Tyndall
(1820 – 1893)
Tyndallization - sterilizing method by
unpressurized heating up to 100°C
for 15 minutes for three days with
incubation in between to kill
bacterial cells & bacterial spores.
- heating of substance being
sterilized to 121°C for 15 minutes in
a pressured system
Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895)
-one of the most important founders of medical
microbiology
(breakthroughs in the causes & preventions of dses.)
- reduced mortality from puerperal fever
-created the first vaccines for chicken cholera,
rabies and anthrax
- Silkworm disease
-Germ Theory of Disease
“A specific disease is caused by a specific
micro-organism”
- Pasteurization
- fermentation (wine, beer, vinegar)
- putrefaction
-- contagion (spread of disease)
- importance of microbes in ecology
"Did you ever observe to whom the accidents happen?
Chance favors only the prepared mind"
- Louis Pasteur
 Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch
(1843 – 1910)

- isolated Bacillus anthracis, Tuberculosis

bacillus, and Vibrio cholerae (1883)
- development of Koch's postulates
 Koch's Postulates

1.The organism must be present in every

case of the disease.
2. The organism must be isolated from a
host with the corresponding disease
and grown in pure culture.
3. Samples of the organism removed
from the pure culture must cause the
corresponding disease when
inoculated into a healthy, susceptible
laboratory animal.

4.The organism must be isolated from

the inoculated animal and identified as
being identical to the original organisms
isolated from the initial, diseased host.

Exception 2: Diseases caused by different species of

microorganisms could elicit similar symptoms.

Exception 3: Some pathogens can cause several

Exception 1: Some microorganisms could not be disease conditions.
cultured in artificial media.
 Ignaz Semmelweis
(1818 -1865)

- “father of infection control”

- puerperal sepsis/childbed fever
(post-delivery mortality
- importance of hand washing
- identified Bacillus anthracis
-- introduced “solid media” using gelatin,
agar, or potato slices
- observed microbial colonies
- the use of inoculating loop to transfer
bacteria to pure culture
 Joseph Lister
(1827 – 1912)
• antiseptic surgery
• introduced carbolic acid
(phenol) to sterilise surgical
instruments and to clean
wounds
• promoted the idea of sterile
surgery, aseptic technique
• boiling of instruments for
childbirth
PAUL EHRLICH
(1854 -1915)
- chemotherapy using Arsphenamine
(Salvarsan), the first effective
medicinal treatment for syphilis
- concept of a “magic bullet
- Gram staining technique for bacteria
- antiserum to combat diphtheria
 Albert Schatz
(1920 -2005)
Alexander Fleming
1881 -1955 -co-discoverer of streptomycin
(for PTB) from Streptomyces
- discovery of penicillin
- discovered lysozyme
(muraminidase)
 Franz Ziehl (1859–1926) and
Friedrich Neelsen (1854–1898)
(Acid-Fast/Ziehl–Neelsen stain)
 Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)

English social reformer & statistician

nurse during the Crimean War
"The Lady with the Lamp“

founder of modern nursing

laid the foundation of professional nursing
established nursing school (St Thomas' Hospital, London
the first secular nursing school in the world

Environmental Theory
"is an act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in
his recovery"