During the summer of 1885, in France, the boy Joseph Meister was bitten 14 times by a dog with rabies. Doctors declared the case hopeless, but a scientist agreed to try an alternative treatment. Meister recovers. On October 26, Pasteur informs the French Academy of Sciences who has developed a rabies vaccine.
History of the rabies vaccine
Before 1885, there was no rabies vaccine. Patients died within days of contracting the disease. Joseph Meister’s mother upon learning of the adverse diagnosis for her son, who was bitten by a infected dogHe turns to Louis Pasteur for help.
Louis Pasteur was a renowned scientist in Paris. His advances and discoveries in the field of chemical, physical y biology they had made him the dean at the Faculty of Sciences of the city of Lille.
In 1885, as the leader of a research laboratory, Pasteur was developing a rabies vaccine, which had only been tested on animals.
On July 6, 1885, after a series of debates about the ethical and legal implications of his intentions, Pasteur agreed to inject Joseph Meister with the vaccine. The nine-year-old boy survives.
Pasteur documents the case: Meister’s exposure to the virus, his hospitalization, the dose of the vaccine, the dates of the application, the symptoms presented and the recovery in the patient’s state of health. The story was an immediate hit in the medical field and in the media at the time.
October 26, 1885, Pasteur presents his discoveries and advances to the French Academy of Sciences. Three years later, on November 14, 1888, the Louis Pasteur Institute was inaugurated.
The objective of the center was to investigate the causes, consequences and possible solutions of an endless number of infectious diseases caused by viruses, including rabies.
What is rage?
According to World Health Organization (WHO), rabies is a viral, zoonotic and tropical disease. Which is divided into two types: furious rage and paralytic rage, both lead to death.
Furious rage is characterized by symptoms such as excitement, lack of coordination, hallucinations, in addition to the appearance of hydrophobia and aerophobia, fear of water and air, respectively. Paralytic rage, on the other hand, presents a picture of gradual paralysis, which intensifies.
Mayo Clinic states that the disease is spread from direct contact, through bites or scratches, licks, or exposure to blood, with animals infected with rabies.
The Organization points out which pets, farm animals and wild animals are more likely to suffer from and transmit the disease, among them are dogs, cats, cows, ferrets, goats, horses, bats, beavers, coyotes, foxes, monkeys, raccoons, skunks and marmots.
The rage still remains today
July 6, 1885 is undoubtedly a historic day in the field of science. It is the result of the research, work and desire of Louis Pasteur to understand what he seemed impossible to understand: how to prevent and stop the advance of a deadly disease.
The World Health Organization reports that, despite the success of the anti-rabies vaccine, at present, a part of the world population in a state of extreme poverty does not have access to it due to purely financial reasons.
This was the story of how the rabies vaccine was invented. Since 1885, Pasteur’s discovery has saved thousands of lives around the world, beginning with that of Joseph Meister. However, according to the WHO, still today, children between the ages of 5 and 14 die, mostly in the Asian and African regions, as a consequence of the disease.
