Joseph Meister becomes the first treated human

He told a Berlin scientific society that he had identified the bacterium responsible for TB.

The announcement connected tuberculosis to a specific bacterial agent.

Koch’s findings opened pathways to laboratory detection, although effective treatment took much longer.

The annual 24 March date commemorates Koch’s disclosure rather than the eradication of tuberculosis.

The nine-year-old boy received the first dose of a post-exposure rabies vaccination course after dog bites.

Rabies prophylaxis required a series of inoculations rather than a single injection on this date.

Meister’s recovery led people from many countries to seek the new treatment.

He noticed a fluorescent screen glowing during cathode-ray experiments in Würzburg.

His laboratory observation launched tests of a phenomenon later called X-rays.

The observation preceded the first famous hand radiographs and later clinical use of X-rays.