The blue granite bust was based on a design by artists Xuan Tien and Ngo Liem from HCM City's Fine Arts Association. It is 4m tall including a pedestal of 0.6m. 

Yersin worked in Indochina as a physician in 1890 before travelling widely in the region. He spent much of his time in Vietnam, particularly the coastal city of Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa province. 

In 1934, he was named honorary director of the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute and a member of its Board of Administration. He died at his home in Nha Trang in 1943. 

After 1975, streets named in his honour kept their designation, and his tomb in Suoi Dau, Nha Trang was graced by a shrine where rites are still performed in his memory. 

Yersin's house in Nha Trang is now the Yersin Museum, and the epitaph on his tombstone describes him as a "Benefactor and humanist, venerated by the Vietnamese people.