Hansen's bacillus
Related people
Mycobacterium leprae. The agent of lepra.
Bibliography
- G. H. A. Hansen:
Foreløbige bidrag til spedalskhedens karakteristikk.
Nordiskt medicinskt Arkiv, Stockholm, 1869: 1. Zur Pathologie des Aussatzes.
Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis, Prague, 1871: 194-211. Indberetning til det Norske medicinske Selskab i Christiania om en med understøttelse af selskabet foretagen reise for at anstille undersøgelser angaaende spedalskhedens aarsager, tildels udførte sammen med forstander Hartwig.
Norsk Magazin for Lægevidenskaben, 1874, 3 R., 4, 9 Heft, pp 1-88.
Hansen discovered the leprosy bacillus on February 28, 1873.
His demonstration of the leprosy bacillus is one of the earliest observations of pathogenic bacteria. For an English translation of the paper, see British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, London, 1875, 55: 459-489. - Albert Neisser:
Über die Ätiologie des Aussatzes.
Jahresbericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Kultur, Breslau, 1880; 57: 65-72.
Neisser obtained leprosy tissue from Hansen and, using aniline dyes for staining Mycobacteriae leprae, was able to demonstrate it more convincingly than Hansen. While Hansen first discovered the leprosy bacillus, Neisser was the first to identify it as the etiological agent of the disease.