Word: bacillus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Puzzled by the longevity of villagers in the backwoods of Bulgaria, he bent over his test tubes at the Pasteur Institute in Paris in the early 1900s and concluded that so many Bulgarians lived to be more than 100 because they ate lots of fermented milk. Their yogurt contained Bacillus bulgaricus, which, Metchnikoff decided, chased out the "wild, putrefying bacilli in our large intestine." He consumed untold gallons himself, discoursed profusely about what he believed to be its beneficial effects, and died at the age of 71, leaving behind a mere handful of French yogurt enthusiasts...
...disease produces high fever, delirium, and painfully swollen lymph glands form dark discolorations called buboes; death follows massive internal bleeding. People infected with the most virulent, pneumonic form can infect others by sneezing. The villain is a bacillus, Pasteurella pestis, which thrives in rats, the fleas that bite them, and humans exposed to either pest. Destroying fleas and keeping rats from migrating curb the plague, but Viet Nam's fleas have grown more resistant to available insecticides; and, for example, there are only four quarantine inspectors to see that busy harbor ships keep a constant guard against invading rats...
This time trouble had come in an unexpected form. The deadly bacillus was not a familiar strain of Vibrio cholerae (or Vibrio comma, from its shape), for which a vaccine of sorts is available. Instead, it was a strain of the El Tor group of vibrios,* one which had previously confined its disease-causing activities to the Indonesian island of Celebes. Once this kind of El Tor got under way, it seemed unstoppable. It secured beachheads in South Korea, Taiwan, Red China and Burma. Last year it reached South Viet Nam and Japan. Then it spread into Iran and Uzbekistan...
...Salmonella* bacillus has no fewer than 800 strains, most of which live in the gastrointestinal tracts of chickens, livestock, domestic pets and human carriers. The illness-producing germs are easily spread. Scientific tests have turned up the astonishing fact that as much as 58% of all meat in some U.S. cities is infected...
...several bacteria can cause pyelonephritis, but the worst offender is the colon bacillus. In women, infection is often precipitated by pregnancy; in men, by a kidney stone or prostate trouble. In many cases, pyelonephritis persists over many years. As the kidneys eventually lose their filtering efficiency, the patient may die of uremic poisoning...