Robert Koch

Abstract

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was born in Germany and regarded as one of the main founders of modern bacteriology as he identified the specific causative agents of tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax and also gave experimental support for the concept of infectious disease. He was the first to describe the causative agent of tuberculosis in 1882 and he developed taberculine. He arrived in southern Africa in 1896 at the request of the Cape Colony to help with the eradication of rinderpest. He identified the causal organism of East Coast fever in 1897 which was first named Piroplasma kochi (now Theileria parva).