he made his landmark discovery of the plague bacillus. © Institut Pasteur – Musée Pasteur. Alexandre Yersin (terlahir dengan nama Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin; lahir 22 September 1863 - meninggal 1 Maret 1943) adalah seorang dokter dan bakteriolog asal Swiss dan merupakan warga naturalisasi Prancis. In 1889, he completed research on an experimental form of septicemic tuberculosis for his doctoral thesis, winning a bronze medallion from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris. He joined the recently created Pasteur Institute in 1889 as Roux's collaborator and discovered with him the diphtheric toxin (produced by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae bacillus). For the 2017-2018 term, the members are: Professor Tuan V. NGUYEN, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. When the main rebel chief was later arrested, Yersin witnessed his execution, admiring the impassivity of the victim, who sustained four blows with a sword before decapitation finally occurred. In 1886, he entered Louis Pasteur's research laboratory at the École Normale Supérieure, by invitation of Emile Roux, and participated in the development of the anti-rabies serum. He learned Vietnamese in order to communicate with the crew, and to allay the monotony of his trips, he also studied navigation and cartography. Accordingly, he became a ship’s doctor, initially traveling between Saigon and Manila. Yersin concluded that rats were the principal vector of plague. He developed an effective antiplague serum from injecting plague bacilli into horses. Kitasato was a famed microbiologist who spent seven years in Robert Koch’s Berlin laboratory, where he developed anaerobic techniques that allowed him to isolate the cause of tetanus (Clostridium tetani) in pure culture for the first time. 11 octobre : Xavier Leroux : compositeur français († 2 février 1919). [3] The plague bacillus develops better at lower temperatures, so Yersin's less well-equipped lab turned out to be an advantage in the race with Kitasato, who used an incubator. Yersin was born to a family originally from France. Xenopsylla cheopsis, the common rat flea, In order to be able to practice medicine in France, Yersin applied for and obtained French nationality in 1888. During World War I he planted cinchona trees to provide Vietnam with its own supply of quinine to combat malaria. He died during World War II at his home in Nha Trang, in 1943. He took chronometers, altimeters, and compasses to map the areas and wrote detailed notes about the geography, flora, fauna, and people seen along the way. He began work in the laboratory of the eminent pathologist Andre Cornil (1837-1908), where he translated German articles for the Professor and performed dissections, including autopsies of rabies victims. When a rat corpse cools, the fleas seek another warm-bodied animal, preferentially another rat, but if none is available, humans suffice. In 1894 Yersin was sent by request of the French government and the Pasteur Institute to Hong Kong, to investigate the plague happening there. discovered Pasteur. I regard medicine as a sacerdotal office, like the priesthood. Simond placed a rat suffering from plague into a jar and housed a healthy one above him on a screen, close enough for fleas to jump, but far enough to avoid direct contact between the animals. The pustules, carbuncles, and ulcers described in older accounts were probably infection by Y pestis at the site of the flea bite. Dr Kitasato Shibasaburō, also in Hong Kong, had identified a bacterium several days earlier. Although small in stature, he possessed the extraordinary stamina and tenacity required to confront the challenges of these hazardous and physically demanding journeys. Terms of use | RSS | Contact Us | Report a side-effect with a drug. In 1895, Alexandre Yersin continued his research on the bubonic plague. © Institut Pasteur – Musée Pasteur. His arrival in Hong Kong was three days after that of Shibasaburo Kitasato (1852-1931), whom the Japanese government had sent to investigate the epidemic as well. Yersin’s involvement with plague did not end with discovering its cause. A probable explanation for Kitasato’s confusing initial reports is that another bacterium, possibly Streptococcus pneumoniae, contaminated his cultures. Yersin’s house and the cupola of his observatory, in Nha Trang. Le choix des études médicales s’impose. Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) was born in a Swiss village on the shores of Lake Geneva, three weeks after his father’s death.His 25-year-old mother movedher children to the nearby town of Morges, where she started a finishing school for girls that emphasized household skills and elegant French manners. In1919, he became Inspector of the Pasteur Institutes of Indochina and in 1923, received the honorary title of Inspector General upon his retirement. It was the first recorded use of antiplague serum, and the patient survived, as did 21 of 23 other victims who received his remaining supply. Foci of plague currently exist in all continents except Australia and Antarctica. One option, especially for the wealthy, was to flee. He participated in one of the Auguste Pavie missions. Alexandre Yersin is well remembered in Vietnam, where he was affectionately called Ông Năm (Mr. Nam/Fifth) by the people. during In 1886, he entered Louis Pasteur's research laboratory at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and participated in the development of … Plague during pregnancy was particularly lethal. In 1883, he began his medical studies in Lausanne, but after one year went to Marburg Germany. Mars 2006.C’est lors de mon premier séjour prolongé au Vietnam en 2006 que j’ai découvert l’existence d’Alexandre Yersin dont le lycée français de Hanoi porte le nom. Another attempt at preventing disease was to exclude potentially contagious outsiders from entering a community. The ominous black spots (“tokens”) may also have been primary infections, but some were probably cutaneous hemorrhages and gangrene produced by disseminated intravascular coagulation. Superintendents House and Government Civil Hospital in Hong Kong ca 1893. The result was the charming village of Dalat, which also became a source of vegetables and fruits for the Vietnamese lowlands. The historian Procopius (500-565), who was in Constantinople when the plague struck in 542, wrote, “All the customary rites of burial were overlooked… it was sufficient if one carried… the body of one of the dead to the parts of the city which bordered on the sea and flung him down; and there the corpses would be thrown upon skiffs in a heap, to be conveyed wherever it might chance.”. Deserted, that is, of live bodies, but not necessarily dead ones, whose number and stench were overwhelming. Demanding payment for treating an invalid is rather like saying, ‘Your money or your life.’” Accordingly, after his work with plague, he became involved in other pursuits. the Hong Relations are a factor of your evolution and your transformation, which you accept serenely. The second started in 1346 and ended about 1750. The definitive resolution of this debate is reflected by the nomenclature of the plague bacillus. Travel was often on foot, and he had to contend with rugged terrain, heat, rain, leeches, tigers, mosquitoes, tropical diseases, and, sometimes, unscrupulous guides and interpreters. Plague then disseminated to other Asian countries, Africa, and, apparently for the first time, to Australia and the Western Hemisphere. Musée Condé, Chantilly, France. All rights reserved. In October 1892, Yersin returned to Paris, where, with Pasteur’s help, he obtained funding for his next expedition. left, front row. The bacteria were Gram-negative and exhibited bipolar staining with aniline dyes. Les "pastoriens" vont se pencher sur de nombreuses infections (typhoïde avec André Chantemesse, peste avec Alexandre Yersin, puis dans les années 1920, la … Some became delirious or comatose. Plague has occurred in three pandemics, causing staggering mortality and social disruption. Suffering from a severe attack of malaria and unable to find further guides, he abandoned his trip, returning to the coast disheveled, his feet bare and bleeding. He returned to Nha Trang later that year, and when plague recurred in 1896, he tried the therapy on an 18-year-old Chinese seminary student on June 26. Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (22 September 1863 – 1 March 1943) was a dual national Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist. During his trip, he mapped the area around the Mekong River, made observations about the natives, and took many illuminating photographs. After a year, he began sailing between Saigon and Haiphong along the coast of Vietnam. Its source was puzzling. The third, beginning in western China, appeared in Hong Kong in 1894. Albert et son frère y passent une enfance heureuse. © Institut Pasteur – Musée Pasteur Asked by the French government to help found a medical school in Hanoi, he acted as its director from 1902-1904. Uninterested in Parisian life and imbued with enthusiasm for adventure, he resigned from the Pasteur Institute in 1890 to fulfill his inmost dream of emulating the Scottish explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873) by traveling to other continents. From 1883 to 1884, Yersin studied medicine at Lausanne, Switzerland; and then at Marburg, Germany and Paris (1884–1886). I could never ask a patient to pay me for the treatment…. The reservoir for the organism is a chronic carrier state in various wild rodents—such as gerbils, marmots, field mice, and ground squirrels—which, unlike rats, remain relatively healthy despite prolonged bacteremia. But plague is more the stuff of legend than dysentery…. Albert Calmette is seated, first from Soon, he set up serum production in Nha Trang, where he built another Pasteur Institute, comprising a hospital, vaccination center, laboratory, and observatory. After meeting Emile Roux (1853-1933), who had developed an antirabies vaccine with Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), Yersin was hired as an assistant in Pasteur’s laboratory. typhus. Another bacteriologist, the Japanese physician Kitasato Shibasaburō, is often credited with independently identifying the bacterium a few days earlier, but may have identified a different bacterium and not the pathogen-causing plague. © Institut Pasteur. When a rat with plague, but no fleas, was similarly housed with healthy rats, no infection occurred. Latin histories by the monks of Saint-Denis, official historiographers to the French kings. Quite the same Wikipedia. It was unclear how rats or humans acquired the bacteria. In February1893, he began a seven-month trip from Saigon to explore the southern part of the Central Highlands, heading northeast and discovering along the way the fertile plateau of Lang Bian. At about the same time, flagellants, condemning them- selves, Jews, and humanity in general, traveled through Europe exhorting repentance and beating themselves bloody with knotted whips to propitiate God’s anger. It was called Bacterium pestis before 1900, Bacillus pestis until 1923, and Pasteurella pestis up to 1970, when it received its final name, Yersinia pestis. The Prize is named in honor of Dr. Alexandre Émile-John Yersin (1863 – 1943) who was a great pioneer in medical research in Vietnam, and who discovered the bubonic plague bacillus and Yersinia pestis. Les "pastoriens" vont se pencher sur de nombreuses infections (typhoïde avec André Chantemesse, peste avec Alexandre Yersin, puis dans les années 1920, la tuberculose avec Albert Calmette et Camille Guérin, etc.) En 2014, Alexandre Yersin a été nommé à titre posthume citoyen d'honneur d… The chronicle ends with the death of Charles V in 1380. Den Alexandre Émile Jean Yersin, gebuer den 22.September 1863 zu Aubonne, an der Schwäiz, a gestuerwen den 28. Alexandre Yersin Prize for Outstanding Medical Publications We are pleased to launch the Alexandre Yersin Prize for Outstanding Publication for Vietnamese medical researchers. It was the first isolation of a bacterial exotoxin, and they proposed using it to develop a vaccine. He opened a new station at Hon Ba in 1915, where he tried to acclimatize the quinine tree (Cinchona ledgeriana), which was imported from the Andes in South America by the Spaniards, and which produced the first known effective remedy for preventing and treating malaria (a disease which prevails in Southeast Asia to this day). There, an obscure 30-year-old microbiologist, Alexandre Yersin, who had trained in Paris with Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux, discovered the cause of plague and identified its vector as rats. He developed vaccines and antisera for both men and animals and, as an agronomist, he introduced the Brazilian rubber tree and Peruvian cinchona tree (for quinine) into the country. Moreover, Kitasato was unable to state whether the bacillus was Gram-positive or Gram-negative, and he erroneously suggested that it was slightly motile. Disease occurs primarily in three forms: 1) bubonic plague, with fever and swollen, tender, necrotic, and hemorrhagic lymph nodes; 2) septicemic plague, in which bacteremia occurs, but no bubo develops; 3) pneumonic plague, either as a complication of bacteremia or from inhalation of aerosolized bacteria from people with plague pneumonia or from respiratory secretions of infected mammals. He had widespread interests—astronomy, radio, photography, and French automobiles—that he pursued until his death at 77 in 1943.. Three pandemics of bubonic plague have ravaged mankind, causing horrific mortality and widespread social devastation. On his tombstone is the inscription, “Benefactor and humanist, venerated by the Vietnamese people.” Indeed, he remains renowned in Vietnam, where streets bear his name, his burial site is honored, and his dwelling in Nha Trang is a museum. Procopius described how some previously licentious people became suddenly religious…until the danger passed and they returned to their prior villainy. He also encountered hostility from some village chiefs, who denied passage through their territories. He provided cadavers and assisted with his quest to find a remedy for the plague. Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (September 22, 1863–March 1, 1943) was a Swiss andFrench physician and bacteriologist.He is remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillusresponsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was later renamed in his honour (Yersinia pestis). Cutaneous ulcers, carbuncles, or pustules might arise, but black spots (called “God’s tokens” during the Black Death) were especially ominous. Sus trabajos iniciales junto a Émile Roux fueron sobre el bacilo de la difteria, cuya toxina descubrieron en 1886. Once again, he made detailed geographic observations and accurate maps of the significant villages and landmarks, but had to abandon nearly all his equipment because of unspecified difficulties. Indeed, evidence of widespread plague deaths was often apparent—farms deserted, crops abandoned, livestock unattended. Yersinia Between 1896 and 1910 an estimated 13 million people died in China and India alone. Son père meurt alors qu'il n'a que deux ans. Y pestis, however, can also survive for months in soil, which, if contaminated, could cause infection when rodents inhale or ingest it. Sometimes, it drained pus, which was a favorable sign. [5] Following the country's independence, streets named in his honor kept their designation and his tomb in Suoi Dau was graced by a pagoda where rites are performed in his worship. [1][2] However, a thorough analysis of the morphology of the organism discovered by Kitasato has determined that "we are confident that Kitasato had examined the plague bacillus in Hong Kong in late June and early July 1894", only days after Yersin announced his own discovery on 20 June. They also showed that humans could be asymptomatic pharyngeal carriers of C diphtheriae. Sur les traces d’Alexandre Yersin au Vietnam, par Régine Hausermann Décembre 2013 à Dalat et Nha Trang. He became interested in astronomy, radio, photography, and French automobiles, buying successive models, which he drove in Vietnam. Furthermore, as he once wrote to his mother, he was unsettled about a career in microbiology: “Scientific research is very interesting, but Mr Pasteur is quite right when he said that, unless he is a genius, a man must be wealthy to work in a laboratory and risk leading a miserable existence, even if it does win him a certain scientific renown.”. Finally, studies of DNA isolated from the teeth of plague victims in ancient grave sites have demonstrated that the first two pandemics were indeed caused by Y pestis, although they appear to be from different strains. Lowson refused Yersin access to autopsies. Yersin, who was quite misogynistic, regarded the girls with contempt, but he did remain close to his mother and his sister, writing nearly 1000 letters to them until their deaths in 1905 and 1933, respectively. Yersin was also able to demonstrate for the first time that the same bacillus was present in the rodent as well as in the human disease, thus underlining the possible means of transmission. Alexandre Yersin bust at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences.jpg 2,448 × 3,264; 3.33 MB Alexandre Yersin statue in 2015.jpg 1,728 × 3,072; 1.53 MB CFP-2 Yersin, Alexandre… et proposer des sérums. With streptomycin use, beginning in 1947, it was about 5% to 10%, which remains the current rate with gentamicin or doxycycline therapy. He later settled in Indochina where he … He provided Kitasato with laboratories and facilities for autopsies. A third concept was that it arose from a malign configuration of the planets. Another reaction was to isolate the ill. While in Hong Kong, Yersin was helped in his research by an Italian priest of the PIME order named Bernardo Vigano. A common explanation in most cultures— including Christian, Moslem, or Chinese—was that it was God’s vengeance for widespread human depravity. Earlier, in 1886, he and Roux began to study Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the recently identified cause of diphtheria. Le 5 septembre 1905, Albert-Edgar Yersin naît en Suisse, sur les bords du lac Léman. Alexandre Yersin. Alexandre Yersin fit ses études de médecine d’abord en Alle-magne, à Marburg, puis à Paris, où il rencontra, à l’École normale supérieure de la rue d’Ulm, Louis Pasteur et Émile Roux. Subsequent studies, many conducted by the Indian Plague Commission formed in 1905 and comprising both British and Indian investigators, resolved several others issues about the source and transmission of plague. Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (22 September 1863 – 1 March 1943) was a dual national Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist. Other major accomplishments during this trip were developing accurate maps, including the height and configuration of its mountains; recording the customs of its inhabitants; and calculating its potential for commerce, livestock, mining, and forestry. Because plague was also present in rural areas, however, traveling there did not necessarily avert infection. He developed a laboratory there, planted rubber trees, and sold its latex to the Michelin Company. The Bay of Nha Trang, at the turn of the 19th century. Just better. Hong Kong during the 1894 plague epidemic. He is remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was later named in his honour: Yersinia pestis. Yersin had always been ambivalent about medical practice. Therefore, although at first named “Kitasato-Yersin bacillus” by the scientific community, the microbe will later assume only the latter's name because of the one identified by Kitasato, a type of streptococcus, cannot be found in the lymphatic glands. Accused of poisoning wells and rivers, nearly 1000 Jews were burned in Strasbourg in 1349, and other Jewish communities in the Rhineland were almost completely annihilated. Pasteur a aussi développé les vaccins contre le choléra des poules et la maladie du charbon. Yersin The third pandemic started in western China and spread to Canton and Hong Kong in 1894. Illuminated vellum, 14th century, Y pestis enters X cheopsis when it sucks blood from infected rats, which have high-level bacteremia. These investigations confirm that the tiny bacillus that Alexandre Yersin discovered has, over many centuries, killed tens of millions of people, making it the most lethal bacterium in human history. Emeritus Professor Nu Viet VU, University of Geneva, Switzerland Emeritus Professor Ezio GIACOBINI, University of Geneva, Switzerland Emeritus Professor Jean … On 8 January 1902, Yersin was accredited to be the first Headmaster of Hanoi Medical University by the Governor-General of French Indochina, Paul Doumer. He was appointed as the overall director of the Pasteur Institutes in Indochina. Physicians during this pandemic used the Latin word pestis (“pestilence” in English) for the disease or “plague,” from a Greek word meaning “stroke” or “blow.” A common term was the “Great Mortality.” Only two centuries later was the illness first called the Black Death, not referring to the dark skin lesions that can occur, but apparently because of a Scandinavian mistranslation from the Latin of atra mors, for in its original source atra meant “terrible,” not “black.” Despite this error, the outbreak from 1346-1353 has been called the Black Death since. On ne peut pas dire qu’il soit aisé, même en peu de mots, d’aborder un tel sujet. Although the mechanisms were unclear, the disease seemed contagious, and a common response was to avoid the sick. From the Grandes Chroniques de France, a translation into French of the In 1894, an obscure microbiologist in Hong Kong finally eliminated that uncertainty. His last exploration was a three-month trip in 1894 from the sea westward to the Central Highlands, following a varying northward course that finally ended at the coast in Da Nang. Soon afterwards (1890), he left for French Indochina (current Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) in Southeast Asia as a physician for the Messageries Maritimes company, on the Saigon-Manila line and then on the Saigon-Haiphong line. Yersin tried the serum received from Paris in Canton and Amoy, in 1896, and in Bombay, India, in 1897, with disappointing results. The picture is likely taken from Bonham Road looking His interpreter stole a large share of his goods and deserted. Al finalizar sus estudios de medicina trabajó en el Instituto Pasteur de París. The slides that Lowson and Kitasato sent to The Lancet and British Medical Journal, however, seemed to show two organisms: small bacilli, but also diplococci. ■ © National Archives, UK. Japanese microbiologist In The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), for example, the ten fictional characters abandon plague-infested Florence in 1348 to travel into the surrounding countryside, where they entertain themselves by telling ten stories daily for ten days. Paul-Louis Simond (1858- 1947), another Pasteur-trained microbiologist, noticed that people could safely handle rats that had died of the plague several hours earlier, but not when the animals had just expired. Finding the appropriate growing conditions was challenging, but, using seeds that he had acquired in Java, his efforts eventually succeeded. This biography provides detailed information about his childhood, life, research, achievements and timeline. © Institut The pandemic eventually spread to Europe and continued as periodic outbreaks until it ended and plague mysteriously vanished in the 8th century. Disposal of the corpses was challenging. Yersin’s antiserum and other similar formulations, employed until the advent of antimicrobial agents, reduced the mortality rate of plague from about 80% to about 35%. Earlier, Yersin had traveled to the Far East and had conducted four explorations into French Indochina, primarily in Vietnam, mapping the areas and studying their potential for mining, agriculture, and forestry. For example, in 1383 travelers to Marseille and their goods were sequestered for 40 days (“quarantine” in Italian) before receiving permission to come into the city. Kitasato came to Hong Kong with six assistants and received gracious hospitality from the Scottish doctor James Lowson (1866-1935), who was Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital.