Clinical evaluation of purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine administered intradermally in animal exposures

Abstract

Background: In India, presently there are two purified chick embryo cell culture vaccines (PCECV) viz., Rabipur (Flury LEP strain) and Vaxirab – N (Pitman Moore strain) which are commonly used both in public as well as private sectors. The present study was conducted to assess the clinical efficacy in terms of safety, immunogenicity and survival status of both the PCECV administered animal exposures taking complete PEP at the anti-rabies clinic.Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted at the anti-rabies clinic, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bangalore, India. 86 suspect rabid dog bite cases attending clinic were enrolled and followed up for 1year. All the animal bite cases were given post exposure prophylaxis of full course of PCECV i.e. Rabipur or Vaxirab - N as per schedule intradermally using updated Thai Red Cross regimen. The rabies virus neutralizing antibody (RVNA) concentrations on days 14, 28, 90, and 180 were tested by modified rapid fluores­cent focus inhibition test.Results: Out of 86 study subjects, 43 subjects received Rabipur and another 43 subjects received Vaxirab –N vaccines. The incidence of adverse drug events (ADEs) was found to be 9.3%. All subjects had protective RVNA titers of ³0.5 IU/ml from day 14 till day 180. All the study subjects were healthy and alive after 6 months of completing PEP.Conclusions: The currently available purified chick embryo cell culture rabies vaccines are safe, immunogenic and clinically effective for post exposure prophylaxis in animal bite cases, which will help in eliminating human rabies by 2020.