by Anh Nguyen
The First Indochina War (1945 - 1954):
In 1945 when the August Revolution in Vietnam succeeded, the Vietnamese received poor medical care–especially in the urban areas. Over 90% of people in the countryside did not receive medical service. When people are sick, they have to take care of themselves using every method that they have; including traditional herbal medicine. Interestingly, worship and prayer were also part of “treating” diseases. During that time, the Cholera outbreaks caused many local people to die since they did not receive any kind of medical treatment from the Health Organization. People built a temple to praise Câu Lãnh because he opened a worship ceremony for people to receive treatments–like water mix with incense ash. Miraculously, people did recover from the illness.
The scientific level of study today explains why people drink a lot of water, which can prevent them from dying. Eventually, the Vietnamese government started to care and created a medical field to support the community. This served the people’s health and supported the military. Microbiology and vaccine study labs had been created in the Southern, Central, and Northern areas of Vietnam under the government’s command. Even though many doctors and nurses at that time had been educated by the French, the purpose of serving their country and supporting The August Revolution made Vietnamese people enter the battlefield.
The Vaccine:
Even though the Vietnamese were in war conditions, the manufacturing of a vaccine never got disrupted. That is thanks to the microbiology study room in the North, Central, and South. This was due to the manufacturing of vaccines, which were administered in the woods or at peoples’ houses– which caused a lot of difficulties. During the First Indochina War (1946-1954), the Vietnamese produced three types of vaccines for Cholera, typhoidal, and smallpox. They finally met the needs to serve the military and the people.
The Pasteur Academy in Vietnam:
The fighting strategies caused a lot of difficulties toward the French colonists. The Pasteur Academy had to change as well. In 1952, the Executive of France-Vietnam had been formed. From 1958, the entire Pasteur Academy in Saigon, Dalat, Nha Trang was managed by the Vietnamese completely. Each part of the academy has its own manager. Due to the strategic situation and the high autonomy culture in Pasteur Academy, scientists started to focus on experimenting, lab working, and manufacturing vaccines. They gained some profit to support the workers and the academy. Much research from Pasteur Academy is diverse–not just the study of microbes, parasites, bacteria, virus, pathology, epidemiology, etc.. They also study veterinary topics, fungi, leprosy, and more. Moreover, the United States also supported the study of plague, insect, and gut microbiota.
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