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Alexandre Yersin | |
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Born | |
Died | 1 March 1943 | (aged 79)
Nationality | Swiss and French |
Known for | Yersinia pestis |
Awards | Leconte Prize (1927) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Bacteriology |
Institutions | École Normale Supérieure, Institut Pasteur |
Alexandre Émile Jean Yersin (22 September 1863 – 1 March 1943) was a Swiss-French physician and bacteriologist. He is remembered as the co-discoverer (1894) of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was later named in his honour: Yersinia pestis. Another bacteriologist, the Japanese physician Kitasato Shibasaburō, is often credited with independently identifying the bacterium a few days earlier. Yersin also demonstrated for the first time that the same bacillus was present in the rodent as well as in the human disease, thus underlining the possible means of transmission.