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Several important scientists made significant contributions to the control of tetanus. Arthur Nicolaier (1862-1942) discovered he tetanus bacterium in 1884. Three years later, while engaged in a study of disinfectants, German bacteriologist Emil von Behring noticed that the blood serum of tetanus-immune laboratory rats neutralized the anthrax bacteria. He set about isolating the substance that gave the rats resistance to the bacteria.

In the Berlin laboratory of scientist Robert Koch, Behring joined with Japanese bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, the first person to isolate the tetanus bacterium in pure culture in 1889. He later isolated and described the bacteria that cause diphtheria, anthrax, and Bubonic Plague. Behring and Kitasato discovered that the presence of tetanus and diphtheria toxins in blood cause the blood to produce antitoxins that neutralize the poisonous substances. When they injected small amounts of tetanus toxin into animals, the animals produced antitoxins, which gave them immunity from the disease. Furthermore, blood serum containing antitoxins extracted from these animals and injected it into other animals, gave the new animals immunity to tetanus, as well.They called this procedure "blood serum therapy."

Behring developed a way to produce antitoxin serum in guinea pigs, and later developed a toxin-antitoxin mixture which was an effective vaccine against tetanus. In 1893, French scientist, Pierre-Paul-Emile Roux (1853-1933), assistant to Louis Pasteur at the Pasteur Institute, developed improved procedures for using antitoxin serum to prevent as well as treat tetanus.

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15y ago

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