The Pasteur Society in Novi Sad organised the World Rabies Day event in memory of Dr. Adolf Hempt, the founder of the Pasteur Institute in Novi Sad, the only active one in Serbia, in the Reformed Church in Novi Sad, where Dr. Hempt was baptised in 1886.
Serbia is now free of rabies, but neighbouring countries Hungary and Romania have animal rabies, including cases of rabies in domestic animals, which are spreading from war-torn Ukraine.
Dr. Adolf Hempt, born in Novi Sad in 1874, founded the Pasteur Institute in 1921, and his inactivated vaccine against rabies was produced in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe for years. Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia produced Hempt’s vaccine until the introduction of cell culture vaccines in the 1980s.
The introduction and God’s blessing were given by the bishop of the Reformed Church of Novi Sad, Botoš Elemir, and archpriest-staurophore Branko Ćurčin. Welcoming speeches were given by Dr. Mikloš Fabri in front of the Reformed Church, Prof. Dr. Dragan Dankuc, president of the Novi Sad branch of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Dr. Zoran Vacić on behalf of the Serbian Medical Society, Petar Novica Nikolić, doyen of television, Prof. Dr. Milorad Žikić as president of the Pasteur Society and Prof. Dr. Edin Delić, mayor of Lukavac, where Dr. Hempt worked in his youth. The doyens of medicine from Novi Sad and Sombor held lectures for the public on the history and modern medicine, especially dedicated to the humanism and work of Dr. Adolf Hempt. The lecturers were Prim. Dr. Vladimir Jokanović (100 years of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, 1887-1987), Dr. Slavica Žižić-Borjanović (Followers of Pasteur in Serbia), Prof. Dr. Dušanka Dobanovački (Sanatoriums in Novi Sad), Prim. Dr. Đerđi Šarić (Humane approach to oncology patients), Prof. Dr. Milorad Žikić (On life in general, on Pasteur and Hempt) and Prof. Dr. Dušan Lalošević, former director of the Pasteur Institute (Biography of the founder of the Pasteur Institute, Dr. Adolf Hempt).
The author of the enclosed photos from the symposium is Anica Župunski, member of the section for humanity, art and culture of the Society of Doctors of Vojvodina – Serbian Medical Society, participant in numerous collective exhibitions of the section as part of the jubilee October Salon in Novi Sad, in the iconic Platoneum gallery, recipient of high awards for artistic photographs at many prestigious domestic and international exhibitions of artistic photography. She gifted photos that will preserve the memory of the First Symposium of the Pasteur Society in Novi Sad as part of the Society’s Archive. The Management of the Society and the organisers of the Symposium are grateful to her!