Milestones in science and hygiene

Rabies
Dreaded throughout the whole world, rabies is one of the most infamous diseases. A vaccine was discovered by Louis Pasteur, who applied all his knowledge to the eradication of the disease, drawing on the work of others such as the Englishman Edward Jenner, who created the first human vaccine after discovering a way to attenuate the infectiousness of a pathogenic agent. Pasteur developed a rabies vaccine, initially tested on dogs, from the marrow of contaminated rabbits that had lost its power of infection. On the 6 July 1885, the vaccine was injected into a young boy called Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The treatment proved revolutionary in halting the infection.

Diphtheria
A disease characterized by the formation in the throat of a membrane that can spread to the larynx, diphtheria was the biggest cause of infant mortality at the end of the 19th century, with tens of thousands of cases every year. In 1888, Emile Roux and Alexandre Yersin discovered that the disease was not caused by the identified bacillus, but by the toxin it produces. It was important to know how to control this poison and thanks to the work of the German doctor Emil von Behring, who identified an antitoxin, Emile Roux and his colleagues discovered a remedial treatment known as serotherapy. In 1926, a vaccine was developed by Gaston Ramon, using toxins that had been rendered inactive.

Tuberculosis
At the turn of the 20th century, this infectious and contagious disease, usually affecting the lungs, was responsible for the death of around a seventh of the French population every year. The germ that causes tuberculosis is the tubercle bacillus, discovered in 1881 by the German microbiologist Robert Koch. But it took a long time to discover a serum or vaccine due to the presence of the bacillus in the lungs, which makes the disease chronic. A member of the Institut Pasteur, Albert Calmette, eventually developed the BCG vaccine (Bacille Calmette et Guérin), tested on humans in 1921.

Plague
A "punishment from God", one of the most terrible afflictions in the history of mankind, the plague killed millions of people around the world (more than a third of the French population in 1348). A highly contagious disease transmitted by fleas, it is caused by a bacillus identified by Alexandre Yersin in 1894. In his honour the bacillus was named yersinia pestis. Once the bacillus was known, Albert Calmette produced an serum, followed by Girard and Robic who developed an effective vaccine in 1930. Today, the disease can usually be cured with antibiotic treatment, but the resurgence of resistant strains remains a threat. During the last 15 years, more than 18,000 cases (in humans) in 24 countries were reported to the WHO.