What are Koch's postulates?
Q: What are Koch's postulates?
A: Koch's postulates are four ideas about the relationship between a microbe and a disease.
Q: Who made Koch's postulates?
A: Koch's postulates were made by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884, based on earlier ideas of Jakob Henle.
Q: What were Koch's postulates used for?
A: Koch applied the postulates to cholera and tuberculosis, but they have been used for other diseases.
Q: When were Koch's postulates refined and published?
A: Koch's postulates were refined and published by Koch in 1890.
Q: What did Koch's postulates not take into account?
A: Koch's postulates did not realise that some people were "asymptomatic carriers": they could carry the disease without showing signs of it.
Q: Are Koch's postulates still used today?
A: The postulates are little used today. Other criteria are used, for example, the Bradford Hill criteria for infectious diseases in modern public health.
Q: What were Koch's postulates made before the discovery of what?
A: Koch's postulates were made before the discovery of viruses.
