18. Louis Pasteur and rabies
Louis Pasteur’s work saved uncounted millions of lives throughout the world, simply by encouraging health care workers to frequently wash their hands and to sanitize them and equipment prior to examining patients. Prior to Pasteur’s work with germs and microbes, few doctors bothered to wash their hands between patients. Pasteur developed vaccines for animals and human beings, including a vaccine against anthrax, and for rabies. Pasteur created the first rabies vaccine for humans in the 1880s, growing the live virus he used in rabbits. In July 1885, Pasteur successfully used the vaccine on a 9-year-old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog days before.
Pasteur was not a licensed physician in France, where the vaccination took place. Over the course of eleven consecutive days, Pasteur administered 13 inoculations to the boy. The boy did not develop rabies despite the fact that he had been bitten by a rabid dog. Pasteur later tested the vaccine on other patients, and in 1886 administered 350 vaccines to people, only one of whom developed rabies. Had any of the patients pursued legal action Pasteur faced prosecution for practicing medicine without a license. None did, and Pasteur basked in the acclaim awarded him as a national hero in France. He left strict instructions to his descendants to never reveal his personal notebooks and diaries. Not until 1964 did his papers appear in the French National Library, with severely restricted access until 1971. Numerous controversies over Pasteur and his methods have emerged since access to the papers loosened in the 1980s.