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Dr. Armand Frappier (1904-1991) |
After finishing his MD and MSc at the University of Montreal in 1930-1931, Armand Frappier went to work in Paris, where he studied applications of immunology and anatoxins. He returned to Canada as chief of laboratories at the Hopital Saint-Luc in Montreal, and became professor of Bacteriology at the University of Montreal in 1933. In 1938, Dr. Frappier founded the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene, the first French-language school of hygiene in the world.
Dr. Armand Frappier was instrumental in the fight against tuberculosis in Canada, as one of the first North Americans to confirm the safety and efficacy of BCG and to develop original study and utilization methods for this vaccine. Frappier also demonstrated nonspecific preventative effects of the BCG vaccine in cases of infant leukemia. From 1933, Dr. Frappier was responsible for the production of BCG vaccine and its distribution to all parts of Canada.The careful research necessary to maintain the vaccine as a safe biological product required constant vigilance on the part of Dr. Frappier and his staff’.
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Dr. Armand Frappier presents the Armand Frappier bursary to Dr. Aurore Cote. |
Over the years Dr. Frappier became increasingly involved in international studies on BCG. In 1958, the International Union against Tuberculosis and the International Childhood Center in Paris made the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene of Montreal responsible for organizing the first inter-laboratory experiment on ’Experimental Methods for the Study of BCG.
Until his retirement in 1975, Dr. Frappier was professor of Bacteriology at the University of Montreal and also in charge of the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene, renamed on his retirement the Armand Frappier Institute. Other achievements of Dr. Frappier include membership on expert panels of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and the World Health Organization (WHO), distinction of Companion of the Order of Canada, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, as well as honorary doctorates at the universities of Laval, Montreal, Quebec, Paris, and Krakow.
-- modified from Wherrett in The Miracle of the Empty Beds, 1977.
Visit the Armand Frappier Museum at http://www.inrs-iaf.uquebec.ca/Musee/Musee-e.html
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