Photo showing the Louis Pasteur and Rabies exhibition

A photograph with a caption that reads: 'The War against Rabies - Not an episode from an undersea drama but a striking reminder of the fight which European scientists are waging against rabies - using fermenters like this to produce large quantities of safe preventative vaccine grown from human cell culture. Inside the fermenter are micro carriers which give the cells a base on whihc to grow. The environment inside the fermenter is controlled by computer, ensuring a constant supply of dissolved oxygen in thge nutrient medium surrouding the cells. The picture shows a static display mounted at the Science Musuem in London as part of an exhibition commemorating the pioneering work of Louis Pasteur, the great French scientist who gave the world's first sucessful vaccination against Rabies a century ago. The six-month exhibition, "Louis Pasteur and Rabies', describes both both early and recent developments in man's attempts to understand and control the disease which has consigned so many victims to a frightening, tortured death. Despite ill health Pasteur began his study of rabies in 1880 and five years later news spread that he was having sucess. Nine-years-old Joseph Meister was brought from Alsace, having suffered 14 bites from a rabid dog. The vaccine was untested but Pasteur agreed to treat the boy - and Meister lived. By 1887 Pasteur had treated 2500 rabies patients - and had made the breakthrough against the disease. Today rabies is found in many countries and is a major problem in the Third World where the ownerless dog is the most important source. It is also spread by wild animals - the fox in Europe, the fox, racoon and skunk in North America and the vampire bat in Latin America. Measrues to prevent rabies in Britain and France highlighted in the exhibition which is supported by the British Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and sponsored by Servier Laboratories and May and Baker'.