News & Events
News & Events
[The Korea Times] A conversation with Dr. Louis Pasteur (I)
2015-09-21
Fourteen months into my new role as the head of the Institut Pasteur located in Korea and a new member of the growing Pasteurian family; I often wondered how my conversation with such a great legend would go? Will he approve the current global health situation and associated crises?
Will he endorse our technological innovations to fight disease? Dr Louis Pasteur was born on Dec. 27, 1822 in Dole, France and died on Sept. 28, 1895 in Marnes-la-Coquette, France. He was an innovative scientist and an engineer, who devoted his entire life for the good of mankind. He made many contributions to society, including the process of microbial fermentation leading to beer making as an example - many of us do enjoy a cold beer, the process of pasteurization enabling many of us to enjoy drinking milk without getting sick, and the greatest contribution of all was the principles of vaccination through which the first ever vaccine was produced by him against rabies.
He was indeed a visionary ahead of his time, having built and commissioned many Pasteur Institutes around the world- many of them built and commissioned well after his death, devoted to the principles of vaccination and public health; and in areas devastated by disease especially in the tropics. How could a man, who has not even experienced as an example, the first World War of 1914-1918, to observe real devastation of human lives, devotes his own to help others? He did leave us with a strong Pasteurian gift to build upon and a simple message of hope to energize us every day "Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world".
Dr Pasteur will not approve today's status quo on global health - one man saved the world with a simple rabies vaccine in the 18th century; whereas, in the 21st century, many rich and developed nations agree to disagree on basic research fundamentals to protect it from the ever increasing threat of infectious diseases and of course, the lack of arsenal to fight it. Global disease projections by the World Health Organization (WHO) look real bad for low, medium, and high income countries alike- no country is safe anymore; clearly demonstrated by the recent MERS-CoV outbreak in Korea and the persistent bubonic plague with fifteen cases reported in 2015 in the US.
He would most certainly say that as a developed society in a way, we lack respect for humanity and the humility to protect it; we are more embroiled in reducing costs and increasing profits by any means necessary, that Earth destruction will be our own making and accomplishment. He would endorse and be proud to hear about the technological advancements we have achieved over the last several decades, but horrified to find out the simple fact that we are still unable to deal with and kill bacteria is totally unacceptable and embarrassing; to the extent we named them "superbugs" as they are racing to become one of the biggest health problem surpassing cancer. The deadly epidemic of 2013 with global implications continues to quietly sweeping the Indian subcontinent, and sadly to add that among its many casualties are tens of thousands of newborns dying because we failed to provide them with miracle cures.
Since this great legend managed to kill viruses without even being able to even see how they look like nor take a picture of them, here we are with all the knowledge, technology, and wisdom possible, and as yet, we continue to struggle and be defeated by these very tiny invading microscopic creatures.
"How did we arrive at this global health crisis?" he would ask. I would say technological advances combined with increasing international trade and ease of travel are partly to blame, fast urbanization of many old and new cities in many countries and deforestation are also to blame, changes in diets, eating and work habits across many countries have played a role in weakening our immune system to combat disease and making us both carriers and vulnerable to disease, weather and climate changes are partly to blame, the loss of appetite of pharmaceutical companies to cure disease- leaving them disinterested in infectious disease research is to blame, and finally, I would add the slow eradication of "passion" for research and the recruitment of passionate researchers for infectious diseases-often times funding agencies knowingly or unknowingly mistake passionate basis research for applied product driven research; devastating to say the least, when expectations are product-centric rather than knowledge gained.
By Hakim Djaballah (Dr. Hakim Djaballah is CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea.)