How cholera kills: the cholera toxin
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Did Sambhu Nath De in Calcutta discover the cholera toxin in 1959, completing what Robert Koch began in 1884?
India first (well documented)Medicine & health
Indian claim
Sambhu Nath De showed in 1959, at Calcutta Medical College, that cholera bacteria release a toxin that makes the gut pour out fluid. This is the true cause of cholera's deadly diarrhoea.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- De published in Nature in 1959 that cell-free culture filtrate caused fluid build-up in a tied-off loop of rabbit intestine, a method he devised.
- His work led to the understanding behind oral rehydration and cholera vaccines. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize but did not receive it.
- In the same year, N.K. Dutta's group in Bombay independently showed in infant rabbits that the disease is caused by a toxin.
Commonly credited to
Robert Koch identified the cholera bacterium (Vibrio cholerae) in 1884, working partly in Calcutta, and believed it acted through a poison he never found. Filippo Pacini had seen the organism in 1854.
Evidence for the other claim
- Koch's 1884 discovery of the bacterium came first; De explained how the bacterium causes disease.
What historians and scientists say
Koch found the cholera germ, but the toxin that causes the disease was discovered by Sambhu Nath De in India. His discovery is widely recognised by scientists, though less well known by the public.