The International Sepsis Lecture
Open Access Web Conference
The International Sepsis Lecture
Each month, the IHU SEPSIS invites a leading researcher to present their work on sepsis.
Join us for the inaugural session on September 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM (CEST). Our guest speaker, Prof. Jean-Marc Cavaillon, will give a lecture on the history of sepsis.
>>>REGISTER<<<
Once upon a time: Sepsis, from Lucrezia Borgia to Louis Pasteur
Lucrezia Borgia belongs to a long list of famous people who died of sepsis. More precisely, she died of puerperal fever, a word coined by Edward Strother in 1718. The contagiousness of puerperal fever was approached during the 18th century. The most prominent physician was Alexander Gordon who recognized to have contaminated his own patients. In 1857, Ignaz Semmelweis made his bright demonstration that puerperal fever was initiated by the hands of the medical students. Hygiene was then proposed as an important factor in preventing the occurrence of sepsis. Another protagonist who championed the importance of hygiene was Florence Nightingale. The idea of miasma as a source of the disease prevailed till the mid-19th century when two French doctors in Strasbourg, Victor Feltz and Léon Coze reported the presence of deadly bacteria in the blood of their female patients. Ten years later Louis Pasteur repeated the same observation. Male patients could also die of septicemia, a word coined by Pierre Piorry in 1837. Those were the fighters wounded on the battle field, brought to the hospital where they were dying of nosocomial infection, i.e. hospital gangrene, hospital fever, or putrid fever. Alexandre François Ollivier demonstrated on himself the contagiousness of this disease. Armand Trousseau was the first to consider that puerperal fever and the wounded fever were similar processes. Thanks to the work of Pasteur, Lister established the criteria for aseptic surgery, avoiding his patients who had to be amputated to die of sepsis. Then, came the time of the identification of the bacterial poisons, the discovery of key bacterial player, the endotoxin, a word coined by Richard Pfeiffer, and its biochemical characterization by Lydia Mesrobeanu and André Boivin.
About Jean-Marc Cavaillon
Jean-Marc Cavaillon, Dr.Sc., is honorary professor at the Institut Pasteur where he spent his entire career after his postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto (Canada). He has been head of a research unit “Cytokines & Inflammation” director of the Department “Infection and Epidemiology”. He has been president of the “International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society”, and president of the “European Shock Society”. He was deputy editor-in-chief of “Cytokine”, and “Shock”. His work focused on inflammation, sepsis, innate immunity, particularly on cytokines, macrophages and bacterial endotoxins. He was involved in translational research, studying the immune status of patients with sepsis and other severe inflammatory pathologies. He is the author of 171 scientific articles, 133 reviews and four books: “Inflammation – From molecular and cellular mechanisms to the clinic” with Prof. Mervyn Singer, and two books in French on the history of science: “La flamme salvatrice, Il était une fois l’inflammation”, and “Le mauvais air”.
Open Access Web Conference
The International Sepsis Lecture
Each month, the IHU SEPSIS invites a leading researcher to present their work on sepsis.
Join us for the inaugural session on September 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM (CEST). Our guest speaker, Prof. Jean-Marc Cavaillon, will give a lecture on the history of sepsis.
>>>REGISTER<<<
Once upon a time: Sepsis, from Lucrezia Borgia to Louis Pasteur
Lucrezia Borgia belongs to a long list of famous people who died of sepsis. More precisely, she died of puerperal fever, a word coined by Edward Strother in 1718. The contagiousness of puerperal fever was approached during the 18th century. The most prominent physician was Alexander Gordon who recognized to have contaminated his own patients. In 1857, Ignaz Semmelweis made his bright demonstration that puerperal fever was initiated by the hands of the medical students. Hygiene was then proposed as an important factor in preventing the occurrence of sepsis. Another protagonist who championed the importance of hygiene was Florence Nightingale. The idea of miasma as a source of the disease prevailed till the mid-19th century when two French doctors in Strasbourg, Victor Feltz and Léon Coze reported the presence of deadly bacteria in the blood of their female patients. Ten years later Louis Pasteur repeated the same observation. Male patients could also die of septicemia, a word coined by Pierre Piorry in 1837. Those were the fighters wounded on the battle field, brought to the hospital where they were dying of nosocomial infection, i.e. hospital gangrene, hospital fever, or putrid fever. Alexandre François Ollivier demonstrated on himself the contagiousness of this disease. Armand Trousseau was the first to consider that puerperal fever and the wounded fever were similar processes. Thanks to the work of Pasteur, Lister established the criteria for aseptic surgery, avoiding his patients who had to be amputated to die of sepsis. Then, came the time of the identification of the bacterial poisons, the discovery of key bacterial player, the endotoxin, a word coined by Richard Pfeiffer, and its biochemical characterization by Lydia Mesrobeanu and André Boivin.
About Jean-Marc Cavaillon
Jean-Marc Cavaillon, Dr.Sc., is honorary professor at the Institut Pasteur where he spent his entire career after his postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto (Canada). He has been head of a research unit “Cytokines & Inflammation” director of the Department “Infection and Epidemiology”. He has been president of the “International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society”, and president of the “European Shock Society”. He was deputy editor-in-chief of “Cytokine”, and “Shock”. His work focused on inflammation, sepsis, innate immunity, particularly on cytokines, macrophages and bacterial endotoxins. He was involved in translational research, studying the immune status of patients with sepsis and other severe inflammatory pathologies. He is the author of 171 scientific articles, 133 reviews and four books: “Inflammation – From molecular and cellular mechanisms to the clinic” with Prof. Mervyn Singer, and two books in French on the history of science: “La flamme salvatrice, Il était une fois l’inflammation”, and “Le mauvais air”.