The Pasteur Institute of Iran: Where Public Health Meets Geopolitics

The Pasteur Institute of Iran, a century-old pillar of the country’s public health system, has been rendered unable to continue delivering health services following strikes on April 2, 2026. The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the significant damage to the facility, which serves as the oldest medical facility in Iran.

Iranian officials have attributed the strikes to US-Israeli forces, describing the event as a barbaric assault on basic human core values and a major blow to the nation’s scientific and medical infrastructure. Neither the United States nor Israel had assumed responsibility for the strike as of April 2, 2026.

A Century of Public Health Infrastructure

Established in 1920 after World War I, the Pasteur Institute of Iran was founded during a period of widespread famine, and epidemics. It was created to institutionalize the response to contagious and chronic illnesses that were spreading across the region at the time.

The institute was established on land donated by the Iranian aristocrat Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma. The stated purpose of the facility was to enable the local manufacture of serums and vaccines against several critical diseases, including:

• Smallpox
• Plague
• Cholera
• Diphtheria
• Rabies

The institution was formally established in cooperation with the Paris-based Pasteur Institute, which is a leading global center for microbiology, vaccine development, and infectious disease research.

Global Health Context and the Pasteur Network

The institute is part of a global network of Pasteur Institutes that began with the founding of the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 1888. This network expanded to include facilities across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and North and West Africa, including locations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Tunis, Tunisia; and Dakar, Senegal.

The expansion of these institutes was often tied to the germ theory revolution led by Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur in the 19th century. Historically, many of these centers were established by colonial powers because infectious diseases were viewed as threats to military capacity, imperial stability, and economic productivity.

In the modern era, the Pasteur Institute of Iran has functioned as a critical asset for protecting and promoting population health, particularly during emergencies. WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that two of the institute’s departments served as collaborating centres with the WHO.

Wider Impact on Iranian Healthcare

The attack on the Pasteur Institute is part of a broader pattern of violence affecting health infrastructure in the region. According to Dr. Tedros, the WHO has verified at least 20 attacks on Iran’s healthcare system since March 1, 2026.

These attacks have resulted in the deaths of nine people, including a member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society and a health worker specializing in infectious diseases.

Heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous: the American-Israeli aggressors have attacked the Pasteur Institute of Iran — the oldest and most prestigious research and public health center in Iran and the entire Middle East

Esmaeil Baqaei, Foreign Ministry spokesperson

Political scientists and health officials have highlighted the irony of the location; the institute is situated on Pasteur Street in central Tehran, an area known for its concentration of key state institutions and political power, yet fundamentally rooted in the scientific study of microbes and public welfare.