1885: Rabies vaccine - The book of science

Rabies vaccine
Behavior modification
Joseph Meister reflects
Commentary

Pierre Paul Émile Roux, Louis Pasteur immunology

Rabies vaccine

Émile Roux took the nerve tissue
of rabbits that had died of rabies
and let it dry.
Émile Roux
was a research assistant
for Louis Pasteur.
Even though
they were not able
to identify the pathogen
the idea was to inactivate the virus
and use that as a vaccine
against the disease.
And Joseph Meister,
nine years old,
was bitten badly by a rabid dog.
The vaccine was not tested
and Louis Pasteur was not licensed
to practice medicine
but he did what he could.
He saved
the boy’s life.

Behavior modification

The rabies virus replicates in the muscle
and enters the central nervous system
to travel to the brain.
From the brain,
it migrates to the salivary glands
ready to infect its next victim.
In the brain, it makes its host
more aggressive and likely to bite
to facilitate its own transmission.

Joseph Meister reflects

Clearly, I would have died
a painful death.
Who cares what complications
waited for me?
Death of old age?
An aversion to Nazis?
Fear that I had sent
my loved ones to their deaths?

Unlike smallpox, rabies has not been eradicated, although there are efforts to immunize wild populations that carry the virus. Each year, use of the vaccine continues to save more than a quarter million lives.