Developments in human rabies prophylaxis.

Abstract

Rabies is entirely preventable. All deaths are the result of failed prophylaxis. Rabies encephalomyelitis has never been reported in anyone who received both pre-exposure vaccination and a post-exposure booster. Awareness of the risk of contact with rabid animals is crucial. A lack of basic knowledge and the inaccessibility of expensive rabies vaccines can discourage patients bitten by suspected rabid animals from seeking prompt post-exposure prophylaxis. Similarly, people working with mammals, residents of areas where dog rabies is endemic, travellers, and others at risk often fail to take advantage of pre-exposure prophylaxis. However, since human infection by a dog rabies virus has always proved fatal in unvaccinated patients, there is understandable reluctance to accept any change in vaccine protocols. The intramuscular route of delivery is wasteful and the current, low-dose intradermal (ID) regimen is not always economical or universally trusted. A new, one-week ID regimen, using less vaccine, injected at multiple sites, and involving two clinic visits, could increase the accessibility of highly immunogenic prophylaxis and reduce the prohibitive cost. The recent 2018 World Health Organization recommendations for rabies prophylaxis are included.