Answer to Question #129462 in Microbiology for Shraddha

Question

Are Koch's postulate applicable to understanding the infectious agent of COVID-19 infection

Answer 1

Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884, based on earlier concepts described by Jakob Henle, and refined and published by Koch in 1890. Koch applied the postulates to describe the etiology of cholera and tuberculosis, but they have been controversially generalized to other diseases. According to Koch's postulates, as modified by Rivers for viral diseases, six criteria are required to establish a virus as the cause of a disease1. The first three criteria — isolation of virus from diseased hosts, cultivation in host cells, and proof of filterability — have been met for Corona virus. The three remaining criteria: production of comparable disease in the original host species or a related one, re-isolation of the virus, and detection of a specific immune response to the virus has also been tested. From the findings, thus Corona Virus fulfills all of Koch's postulates as the primary aetiological agent of COVID-19.