Quite the same Wikipedia. Hurrying to his laboratory with the specimens, he made slides and discovered masses of very small, thick bacilli with rounded ends. Foci of plague currently exist in all continents except Australia and Antarctica. 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. In 1897, plague erupted in India, and Yersin introduced his treatment there. 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). While in Hong Kong, Yersin was helped in his research by an Italian priest of the PIME order named Bernardo Vigano. I could never ask a patient to pay me for the treatment…. He arrived on June 15, 1894, with a staff of only two untrained people, one who quickly absconded with Yersin’s money.Yersin’sonly equipment was a microscope, an autoclave, and culture supplies. 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. 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. In1919, he became Inspector of the Pasteur Institutes of Indochina and in 1923, received the honorary title of Inspector General upon his retirement. In 1895, Alexandre Yersin continued his research on the bubonic plague. Dr. Yersin was credited with finding the site for the new town of Da Lat in 1893. from left, back row (his name is On ne peut pas dire qu’il soit aisé, même en peu de mots, d’aborder un tel sujet. Many victims reeked from the stench of their breath or because of putrid discharges from their sores or nasal cavities. It was unclear how rats or humans acquired the bacteria. in 1894. It was the first isolation of a bacterial exotoxin, and they proposed using it to develop a vaccine. Procopius described how some previously licentious people became suddenly religious…until the danger passed and they returned to their prior villainy. Dr Kitasato Shibasaburō, also in Hong Kong, had identified a bacterium several days earlier. Son père meurt alors qu'il n'a que deux ans. typhus. Alexandre Yersin is well remembered in Vietnam, where he was affectionately called Ông Năm (Mr. Nam/Fifth) by the people. The chronicle ends with the death of Charles V in 1380. 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. In 1894, an obscure microbiologist in Hong Kong finally eliminated that uncertainty. After Yersin returned, Calmette asked him to travel to the British colony of Hong Kong to investigate the outbreak of plague there, which heralded the third pandemic. In the London epidemic of 1665, Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) recorded in his diary how the doors of those houses were marked with a red cross and the words “Lord have mercy upon us.” Such imprisonment seemed inhumane: “This disease makes us more cruel to one another than if we are dogs.” In Germany, houses of inhabitants with the plague were marked with black crosses, and the word “Pest” (plague). © Institut Pasteur – Musée Pasteur. Yersin also demonstrated 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. To install click the Add extension button. Latin histories by the monks of Saint-Denis, official historiographers to the French kings. Il entra à leur service et soutint sa thèse—sur la diphtérie—en 1888, l’année Moreover, Kitasato was unable to state whether the bacillus was Gram-positive or Gram-negative, and he erroneously suggested that it was slightly motile. When fleas were added, however, plague developed. Le 5 septembre 1905, Albert-Edgar Yersin naît en Suisse, sur les bords du lac Léman. The first one began in Egypt with that portion of it known as the “Plague of Justinian” (541-543), so called because it started in the reign and territory of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian (482-565) and because he contracted the disease, which he luckily survived. left, front row. 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. Military doctors at the Saigon Shy, solitary, and intensely private, Yersin found himself more interested in pathology than patient care. written over his white uniform jacket). His first trip, in July 1891, was an ambitious attempt to journey from the coast southwest across the Annamite mountain range to Saigon 500 km away. plague In addition to transmission via fleas and inhalation of Y pestis, plague can occur from direct handling of infected animal tissues or by ingesting the organism. Looking back the course of history, Alexandre Yersin, a young 28-year-old French man first put his foot on Nha Trang coast in July 1891. Albert et son frère y passent une enfance heureuse. The Bay of Nha Trang, at the turn of the 19th century. Lowson was less enthusiastic about Yersin, who was unprepossessing, unable to speak English, shy, and, in contrast to Kitasato, unrenowned. There, in a small hut (according to Plague by Wendy Orent) since he was denied access to British hospitals at his arrival, he made his greatest discovery: that of the pathogen which causes the disease. discovered 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. His house in Nha Trang is now the Yersin Museum, and the epitaph on his tombstone describes him as a "Benefactor and humanist, venerated by the Vietnamese people". Y pestis enters X cheopsis when it sucks blood from infected rats, which have high-level bacteremia. The third, beginning in western China, appeared in Hong Kong in 1894. The question of priority for first finding the cause of plague generated considerable controversy, exacerbated by false claims and contradictory statements that Kitasato and his colleagues made afterwards, with Kitasato sometimes insisting that the microbe that he identified was different from Yersin’s isolate. by It was then part of French Indochina, formed in 1887 as a federation of three Vietnamese regions—Tonkin in the North, Annam in the Central area, and Cochin China in the South—as well as Cambodia, with Laos being annexed in 1893. the Hong He developed a laboratory there, planted rubber trees, and sold its latex to the Michelin Company. For the 2017-2018 term, the members are: Professor Tuan V. NGUYEN, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. 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. Dia menjadi terkenal karena jasanya menemukan bacillus yang menjadi penyebab penyakit pes bubo, yang kemudian penyakit tersebut diberi nama sesuai dengan namanya demi … From the Grandes Chroniques de France, a translation into French of the Alexandre Émile John Yersin, popularly known as Alexandre Yersin was a Franco-Swiss bacteriologist and physician. 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. 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. © Institut "Diagnosis of plaque: an analysis of the Yersin-Kitasato controversy", "Phần 1: Thời kỳ thuộc Pháp (1902–1945)", Alexandre Yersin and his adventures in Vietnam, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alexandre_Yersin&oldid=998378753, Wikipedia articles with Léonore identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 03:10. He inoculated agar, and the isolates, when injected into mice and rats, produced plague. Quinine prevented malaria, but he suffered a severe attack of dysentery. © Wellcome Library, London. 11 octobre : Xavier Leroux : compositeur français († 2 février 1919). The result of the staggering death rates, isolation of the sick, and flight from urban areas was that the streets of even large cities were largely deserted. during Alexandre Yersin poursuit ses études au gymnase de l’Académie à Lausanne, où il obtient son diplôme de bachelier ès-lettres le 21 juillet 1883. © Institut Pasteur. 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. Many physicians approved: a late 15th-century German manuscript stated, “Clever doctors have three golden rules to keep us safe from pestilence: get out quickly, go a long way away, and don’t be in a hurry to come back.” [“Flüch bald, flüch ferr, kom spät herwieder, dann fürvar das sind drei nützere Krüter,” from the Büchlein der Ordnung der Pestilenz (1473), by Heinrich Steinhöwel, town doctor of Ulm from 1450 to 1482]. Plague has occurred in three pandemics, causing staggering mortality and social disruption. In 1933, he was appointed a member of the Scientific Council of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he traveled annually to attend its meetings. 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. Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was later renamed in his honour (Yersinia pestis). Alexandre Yersin Médico y microbiólogo francés de origen suizo Nació el 23 de septiembre de 1863 en Aubonne, cantón suizo de Vaud. © National Archives, UK. En 2014, Alexandre Yersin a été nommé à titre posthume citoyen d'honneur d… The first began with the Plague of Justinian and lasted from 541 to about 750. Yersin In Constantinople in 542, for example, people wore nametags for identification in case they should abruptly fall dead in the streets. You could also do it yourself at any point in time. In 1895 he returned to the Institute Pasteur in Paris and with Émile Roux, Albert Calmette and Amédée Borrel, prepared the first anti-plague serum. Yersin et sa famille. Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (22 September 1863 – 1 March 1943) was a dual national Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist. toward the harbor, with Stonecutter’s Island in the background. Its source was puzzling. Finding the appropriate growing conditions was challenging, but, using seeds that he had acquired in Java, his efforts eventually succeeded. 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. 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). 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. Yersin was born in 1863, to French parents, in Aubonne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Albert Calmette (1863-1933), later famous for developing a vaccine against tuberculosis (Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin [BCG]), had been sent from the Pasteur Institute in Paris to found a branch in Saigon. They also showed that humans could be asymptomatic pharyngeal carriers of C diphtheriae. On 10 May 1935, it took the name Lycée Yersin in honor of Dr. Alexandre Yersin. Hong Kong during the 1894 plague epidemic. 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. During World War I he planted cinchona trees to provide Vietnam with its own supply of quinine to combat malaria. He also encountered hostility from some village chiefs, who denied passage through their territories. Therefore, Kitasato "should not be denied this credit". En 1899, Yersin introduit l'hévéa dans la région de Nha Trang. He inoculated a mouse and saw a similar bacterium in another patient. 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. Death usually arrived within a few days, but it could be sudden. Pasteur. Les "pastoriens" vont se pencher sur de nombreuses infections (typhoïde avec André Chantemesse, peste avec Alexandre Yersin, puis dans les années 1920, la … Another attempt at preventing disease was to exclude potentially contagious outsiders from entering a community. 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. 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%. There is controversy whether this was the same pneumococci or a mix of the two. Alexandre Yersin in 1893. The Alexandre Yersin Museum provides insight into the life and work of an unsung hero. When they next feed, infected fleas regurgitate the bacteria into the bite site, transmitting the bacilli to a new host. The ominous black spots (“tokens”) may also have been primary infections, but some were probably cutaneous hemorrhages and gangrene produced by disseminated intravascular coagulation. 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. Because Kitasato's initial reports were vague and somewhat contradictory, some give Yersin sole credit for the discovery. Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (22 September 1863 – 1 March 1943) was a dual national Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist. In a letter, he wrote: “I take great pleasure in treating those who come to me, but I should not like to make medicine my living. His interpreter stole a large share of his goods and deserted. But plague is more the stuff of legend than dysentery…. One option, especially for the wealthy, was to flee. Boccaccio wrote that many lived moderately and abstemiously, but others “maintained that the surest medicine for such an evil disease was to drink heavily, enjoy life’s pleasures…satisfying their appetites by any means available….” Searching for causes, some blamed the disease on others. He developed an effective antiplague serum from injecting plague bacilli into horses. 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. Alexandre Emile John Yersin (Lavaux, cantón de Vaud, Suiza; 22 de septiembre de 1863-Nha Trang, Vietnam; 1 de marzo de 1943) fue un médico y bacteriólogo franco-suizo.Junto con el médico y bacteriólogo japonés Kitasato Shibasaburō, es recordado como el codescubridor de los bacilos responsables de la peste bubónica, la cual fue llamada en 1970 en su honor (Yersinia pestis). In March 1892, Yersin began an officially authorized trip of three months from the coast at Nha Trang—a region he was to fall in love with and settle at permanently— west through the Central Highlands into Cambodia, reaching the Mekong River. Yersin’s discovery of the plague bacillus and its presence in rats left several issues unanswered. Colonial Office Photographic Collection. 2008 « Esclavage et colonisation. On June 20, at the advice of an Italian missionary, he bribed some English sailors in charge of the hospital mortuary to allow him to excise some buboes from the corpses before burial. Disposal of the corpses was challenging. The second started in 1346 and ended about 1750. Of course this did not mean that the disease had disappeared entirely, and arguably one of the most famous early victims of the plague, according to his medieval chroniclers, was king Saint Louis, an icon to French schoolchildren who all recite: “Saint Louis died of the plague in 1270 in Tunis, during the 8th Crusade…” even though it is today recognized that the culprit was most probably dysentery. Albert Calmette is seated, first from Numerous accounts concur with Boccaccio’s description: “When all the graves were full, enormous trenches were dug… into which the new arrivals were put by the hundreds, stowed layer upon layer like merchandise in ships….”, The traditional rituals surrounding death were commonly abandoned or curtailed. Lucien Lesna, coureur cycliste français († 11 juillet 1932). This important discovery was communicated to the French Academy of Sciences in the same year, by his colleague Emile Duclaux, in a classic paper titled "La peste bubonique à Hong-Kong".[4]. A probable explanation for Kitasato’s confusing initial reports is that another bacterium, possibly Streptococcus pneumoniae, contaminated his cultures. In some places guards were placed outside their dwellings to keep them incarcerated. Số 44 phố Gia Thượng, Phường Ngọc Thụy Long Biên Hà Nội Vietnam Tél. Accordingly, he became a ship’s doctor, initially traveling between Saigon and Manila. Cutaneous ulcers, carbuncles, or pustules might arise, but black spots (called “God’s tokens” during the Black Death) were especially ominous. The pandemic eventually spread to Europe and continued as periodic outbreaks until it ended and plague mysteriously vanished in the 8th century. Earlier, in 1886, he and Roux began to study Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the recently identified cause of diphtheria. Yersin then traveled south on a river boat to Phnom Penh before returning to Saigon. Yersin did manage to get a straw-covered bamboo hut constructed on the grounds of a recently converted hospital, where he established his laboratory. 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. 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. From 1883 to 1884, Yersin studied medicine at Lausanne, Switzerland; and then at Marburg, Germany and Paris (1884–1886). Va descobrir el bacil responsable de la pesta bubònica (Yersinia pestis).. El 1886, va entrar a treballar amb Louis Pasteur al laboratori de l'École Normale Supérieure, invitat per Emile Roux, i participà en el desenvolupament del sèrum anti ràbia. In 1895, he was back in Paris working with Calmette on an antiplague serum obtained by injecting bacilli into horses. 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.”.