Barry Marshall worked as as gastroenterologist at the Royal Perth Hospital in Au

Question

Barry Marshall worked as as gastroenterologist at the Royal Perth Hospital in Australia in the 1980s. Collaborating with J. Robin Warren, he observed bacterial cells shaped like curved rods living in the stomach lining of over 100 patients who had ulcers The rod shaped bacteria was identified as Campylobacter pyloridis. Household members of ulcer patients do not develop antibodies to this bacteria while clinical staff who take biopsy samples from ulcer patients do develop antibodies to this bacteria. Marshall and Warren hypothesized that inflammation of the stomach and ulceration of the stomach or duodenum was the result of an infection of Helicobacter pylori (formerly Campylobacter pyloridis). The

Explanation / Answer

1. Barry Marshall came to the conclusion that the stomach infection was caused by a bacteria Helicobacter pylori because these were found lining the wall of stomach of diseased patients. It was a infectious disease because when he drank a dilute solution of the bacteria he got the same symptoms as his patients. Earlier he had observed that the doctors or nurses taking biopsy samples from the patient had antibodies produced in their body against this. So he came to the conclusion that antibiotics could be used for treating stomach ulcers.

2. Yes Barry has used Koch's postulate to come to his conclusion. Koch's postulates states that the pathogen should be present in all cases of disease, we should be able to isolate it from diseased person and grow in pure medium , pathogen should be capable of causing disease when taken from pure culture and using on laboratory animal and lastly pathogen should be reisolated from new patient and must be the same as the one inoculated.

Here Barry isolated the H. pylori from patient diluted it and drank the mixture. The symptoms of disease was seen in him and they were produced by H. pylori itself.

3. Doctors found it hard to believe that peptic ulcers were an infectious diasease caused by bacteria. They could not believe this could lead to inflammation of stomach. Its because the stomach offers a highly acidic environment. About 128 bacteria types have been found living in stomach, of which the deadliest is Helicobacter pylori.

4. H pylori has been a part of the stomach for several years and gets adapted to the acidic nature in it. As a result it leads to the development of an adaptive immunity which provides protection against tuberculosis or cancer of the esophageus.

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