On July 6, 1885, Louis Pasteur treated young Joseph Meister—who had been bitten by a rabid dog—with the first effective rabies vaccine, which he had developed himself. The vaccination consisted of a series of injections using a weakened rabies virus derived from the spinal cord of infected rabbits. This breakthrough marked a turning point in the development of preventive vaccines and laid the foundation for modern vaccine research. Pasteur’s pioneering work saved countless lives and played a key role in combating this deadly zoonotic disease.

All the more paradoxical, then, is the fact that rabies remains one of the most neglected diseases today, despite the availability of effective vaccines in both human and veterinary medicine and proven control strategies. Globally, the disease receives little international attention or political interest—with devastating consequences: rabies still claims tens of thousands of lives every year, particularly in Africa and Asia.