E-drug: Tribute: Doctor Charles Merieux
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From <http://www.promedmail.org>
"Doctor Charles Merieux died on 19 Jan 2001. He was 94 years old and had
devoted his life to combatting infectious diseases. Dr. Merieux began his
research in 1937 with a very modest laboratory inherited from his father, a
former student of Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux. He developed industrial
virology for vaccine production, taking it from virus production in animals
to cell culture and cellular engineering; from the glass bottle to the
steel vat. Dr. Merieux dreamed of uniting people through a few defined
projects: vaccination of the children of the world against infectious
diseases, unifying the French biological industry in the spirit of Pasteur,
and abolishing the barriers separating people, disciplines and studies. He
pursued the realization of his dreams, up to the moment of his last breath.
Dr. Merieux, who in 9 months vaccinated 90 million Brazilians against
meningitis, thus stopping the 1974 epidemic in Brazil, realized that the
battle against infectious diseases is never won, that new pathogenic agents
emerge, mostly in tropical countries, and that it is indispensable to
closely associate human and veterinarian medicine.
Charles Merieux anticipated the dreadful impact of the AIDS pandemic. He
wanted all scientists over the world to work together to combat it. He had
international meetings on AIDS organized, the first one in 1984, followed
by the Cent Gardes meetings on human AIDS and related animal diseases. The
13th of the series will take place next October at the conference center he
created in his private property on the scenic banks of Lake Annecy. As
early as 1978, he had a meeting on prion diseases organized. Actually the
meeting was on "non conventional transmissible agents" and "slow viruses,"
since the word "prion" was not then in use. Scrapie and kuru were
discussed. There was no mention of mad cow disease, since it had not yet
emerged, but during this meeting, scientists warned of the risks of
contamination of breeding species and of cross-species transmission of
infectious agents through the food chain and the dramatic health problems
this might cause.
A visionary, Charles Merieux wanted a European high security
laboratory for the study of newly emerging viruses, or microorganisms
which have become resistant to all treatments. This dream led to the
construction of the Jean Merieux Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4)
laboratory. Located in the Gerland area of Lyon, the laboratory was
inaugurated by President Jacques Chirac in
1999. Charles Merieux was also at the origin of the creation of 2 other
research organizations: the Federative Institute for Research and
Immunobiology of Emerging Diseases and the European Center for Research in
Immunovirology. His latest creation was the Merieux-Pasteur Research
Centre in Lyon, which is responsible for the national and
international
development of the Jean Merieux BSL-4 laboratory, overseen jointly by the
Merieux Foundation and the Pasteur Institute. He also made a powerful
contribution to the establishment of the new Lyon office of WHO, dedicated
to communicable disease surveillance and response, which was
inaugurated on 8 Feb 2001.
Although he was very tired, he asked to be taken to Gerland 2 days before
his death, to visit the laboratories which had been created thanks to his
enthusiasm and tenacity, to see them functioning. He wanted to make these
laboratories available to the most disadvantaged countries, particularly
those in Africa. A scientist, a humanitarian, and an entrepreneur, Charles
Merieux was one of the great men of his century. He is a model for all
those who work towards applying science to improve the health of all
people."
--
Betty Dodet
Scientific Director
Fondation Merieux
17, rue Bourgelat
BP 2021
69227 Lyon Cedex 02 - France
TEL: 33 4 72 40 79 72
FAX: 33 4 72 40 79 50
Post by Carinne Bruneton, ReMeD
R�seau M�dicaments et D�veloppement
remed@remed.org
www.remed.org
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