bacillus

A series of laboratory discoveries in the late 19th century taught scientists that Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the bacillus that caused diphtheria, killed animals and people by producing a toxin.

From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2021

“The Plague,” the suddenly timely and widely reread Albert Camus novel, is about the random executions carried out by the bubonic plague bacillus, which only makes manifest the inherent precariousness of human existence.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 28, 2020

In 1876, the German scientist Robert Koch discovered the anthrax bacillus, kicking off the new research field of medical bacteriology.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2020

Caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae, it has affected multitudes over thousands of years — and, as a chronic disease with physical manifestations, has been a source of stigma and ostracism.

From Nature ● Mar. 3, 2019

The first European incursion of the Black Death, in 1347-51, was a classic virgin-soil epidemic; mutation had just created the pulmonary version of the bacillus Yersiniapestis.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

All social classes suffered from the disease, but it had its greatest impact on the poor, for whom overcrowding was the worst and whose homes often lacked sunlight, which kills tuberculosis bacilli.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Swabs from the skin, nose and mouth, as well as saliva and stool samples, showed that 34 percent of all participants had antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as resistant Gram-negative bacilli or vancomycin-resistant enterococci.

From Scientific American ● May 16, 2022

Cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria and typhoid bacilli were subsequently identified.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2020

Is the humid air a forum whence bacilli sense a quorum?

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2018

The toxins of diphtheria bacilli and streptococci are produced when the organisms have been infected by bacteriophage; it is the virus that provides the code for toxin.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas