Notes Regarding Vaccinations

Rabies has been known for at least 4000 years. Rabies is the most lethal infectious disease known to humans. ¹

Vaccination has been very successful in helping to control this deadly disease.

At least five old Mesopotamian “dog incantations” from 1900–1600 BCE, indicate the awareness that it was caused by something in the saliva of the afflicted animal.

Clay tablets unearthed by H.V. Hilprecht in 1889 at the Nippur site (3rd dynasty of Ur III, 21st- 20th-century BCE) of what is now Nuffar in Iraq display Akkadian incantations, to which healers resorted when medicine failed.

Rabies continued to concern populations and medical writers of the Renaissance. Julien Le Paulmier (1520–1588) wrote seven medical textbooks in all, one specifically on rabies [60,61]. The preventive practices at Saint-Hubert were condemned by the Sorbonne as superstitious in June 1671 but remained in use in the Ardennes well into the 19th century.

Although circulation of rabies had reportedly increased, especially in Europe, great progress was being made in the prevention of dog bites in European cities.

The protective effect of washing the wound was described in a publication dated 1796 was widely practiced.

The successful prevention of rabies virus by vaccination was first achieved by Louis Pasteur in 1884 following the survival of dogs that were infected by rabies.

This successful attempt was repeated in late October 1885 in a second case, that of a 15-year-old shepherd, Jean-Baptiste Jupille from Villers-Farlay, Jura, who sustained on October 14 a deep bite to the left and right hands after an attack by a furious dog [92,152]. Jupille was referred to Pasteur by the town mayor and received rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in Paris from 20 to 30 October, 1885. Following Grancher’s accidental exposure to the attenuated vaccine during Jupille’s PEP, Adrien Loir and Eugène Viala became the two first humans to receive pre-exposure rabies vaccination.

Doctors had an effective means of rabies preventing rabies. Pasteur reported 3 (0.2%) deaths among 1235 vaccine recipients.

Another group showed 21 (1.0%) deaths among 1986 recipients by 22 August 1886.

In 1887, 12 (0.7%) deaths was reported for 1726 vaccine recipients. A death rate of 15.3% was expected if the vaccine had not been administered.

The effects of the devastating Ebola haemorrhaging disease has been greatly mitigated with the administration of the vaccine with mild side-effects.

Not all vaccination programs are as successful – some having serious consequences.

Notes Regarding Vaccinations

Last updated on Tuesday 15 July 2025 at 19:58 by administrators

1. Tarantola, A. (2017) Four thousand years of concepts relating to rabies in animals and humans, its prevention and its cure. Tropical medicine and infectious disease. 2 (2) – Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license