How did Louis Pasteur produced the vaccine against rabies?

Humankind has benefited from vaccines for more than two centuries, but the path to discovering effective vaccines was long and difficult. The work required a number .... Until Louis Pasteur developed the rabies vaccine, “vaccines” had referred only to the cowpox inoculation for smallpox. read more

Then, in 1885, while studying rabies, Pasteur tested his first human vaccine. Pasteur produced the vaccine by attenuating the virus in rabbits and subsequently harvesting it from their spinal cords. Louis Pasteur performing an experiment. read more

Pasteur, Louis French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur experimenting on a chloroformed rabbit, coloured wood engraving, 1885. National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland Pasteur’s first important discovery in the study of vaccination came in 1879 and concerned a disease called chicken cholera. read more

The boy lived, and Pasteur became certain his rabies vaccine worked. Today, the vaccines for rabies and anthrax are more refined. The rabies vaccine can be given pre- or post-exposure and is recommended for travelers who may come in contact with infected animals during their trips. Anthrax is very rare, and there were no cases in the U.S. in 2014. read more