Research Center for Emerging and Re emerging Infection Diseases

The Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases is part of the Pasteur Institute of Iran.

(National Reference Laboratory for Plague, Tularemia, and Q Fever)

One year after World War I and despite the persistent problems caused by casualties and infectious diseases in the country resulting from war, the Iranian government decided to renew its relationship with France to promote medical sciences and research concerning different types of endemic infectious diseases. The Iranian delegates met Pierre Paul Émile Roux, the general director of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, in 1919 and this visit laid the foundation of Pasteur Institute of Iran.

On 20 January 1921, Professor René Legroux, the leading delegate of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, signed a memorandum of understanding with the minister for foreign affairs of Iran and as a result, Pasteur Institute of Iran was established. Pasteur Institute of Iran was the tenth Pasteur Institute formed worldwide.

Moreover, Pasteur Institute of Iran formally started its activity on 23 August 1921. Following Emil Roux's suggestion, Joseph Mesnard was nominated as the first general director of Pasteur Institute of Iran and he served in this position for five years. The second French general director of Pasteur Institute of Iran was Joseph Kerandel, who arrived in Tehran in 1926 and stayed in Iran until the end of his life in 1934. He is buried in the Catholic graveyard in Tehran. This dedicated person devoted his life to the development of Pasteur Institute of Iran, complementing the contribution of his Iranian colleagues Dr Abolghasem Bahrami, Dr. Mehdi Ghodsi, Dr. Hassan Mirdamadi, Dr. Hussein Mashuf, Dr. Ahmad Najm Abadi, Dr. Vartani, Dr. Teymour Dolatshahi, among others; all of these activities led to the advancement of Pasteur Institute of Iran. After Dr. Kerandel’s death, Dr. Hussein Mashuf was nominated general director of Pasteur Institute of Iran. After a year, Professor Legroux was appointed scientific director of Pasteur Institute of Iran on behalf of the Pasteur Institute of Paris. He made several trips to Iran to determine the strategies and supervise the activities of Pasteur Institute of Iran; in his absence, Dr. Abolghasem Bahrami was in charge. Due to World War II, the relationship between the Pasteur Institutes in Iran and Paris was interrupted (from 1939 to 1945); however, the institute continued its activities under the direct supervision of Dr. Bahrami and his deputy, Dr. Ghodsi. Before the war, when the number of laboratories was limited and their activities failed to meet the needs of the country, most of the national health issues related to the ministry of health were addressed by Pasteur Institute of Iran; one of its activities was evaluating the quarantining effectiveness in the country and Pasteur Institute of Iran successfully undertook this important responsibility with the contribution of the authorities at the time (Dr. Ehyaolmolk, Dr. Ehyaolsaltane, Dr. Amiraalam, and Dr. Loghmanolmolk). After World War II, in order to further develop Pasteur Institute of Iran and establish new departments, Dr. Manuchehr Eghbal, the Minister of Health, invited a group of members of the Pasteur Institute of Paris to come to Iran to revise the structures and suggest new strategies. This team, including Dr. Pasteur Valery Radot, the head of the council of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, and other officials visited Iran in 1946; they also participated in the 25th anniversary of the inauguration of Pasteur Institute of Iran. On the 25 August 1946, the complementary agreement of technical and scientific memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Pasteur Institutes of Iran and Paris was signed. According to this memorandum, Pasteur Institute of Iran was to be formally and financially independent and under the supervision of the minister of health; one of the French experts, Dr. Marcel Baltazard, working in the Pasteur Institute of Morocco, was nominated to be the general director of Pasteur Institute of Iran. According to the new schedule, Pasteur Institute of Iran started a new approach and focusing its activities in the fields of medicine, epidemiology and research; to this end, one important issue was plague studies.

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