Microbes: Friends or Foes?

Robert Koch was a medical doctor and a great microbiologist who first identified Bacillus anthracis as the causative agent of anthrax in the late 1880’s. Since then, many other bacteria were identified and later shown to be responsible for different infectious diseases. Examples of some bacteria that can cause infections include Vibrio cholerae (causes cholera), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (wound infection), Corynebacterium diphtheriae (diphtheria), Clostridium perfringens (gas gangrene), Clostridium botulinum (botulism), Shigella dysenteriae (shigellosis), and Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough).