Rabies post exposure prophylaxis with cell culture
vaccines by either intramuscular route or intradermal route spans over a period of one month. World Health Organization recommends completing post exposure prophylaxis against
rabies with the same cell culture or embryonated egg
rabies vaccine and with same route of administration and any deviation from this shall be an exception. In the present study, the safety and immunogenicity of
rabies post-exposure prophylaxis was studied prospectively in 90 animal
bite cases that had interchangeability of
rabies vaccines either by route of administration or brand/type and such changes had occurred due to logistical/financial problems. Among them, 47 had change in route of administration from intramuscular to intradermal or vice versa and 43 had change in the brand/type of cell culture
rabies vaccine. All of them had category III
rabies exposure and received equine
rabies immunoglobulin along with the
rabies vaccine. None of the study subjects had any adverse reactions. The rabies virus
neutralizing antibody titers was assessed by rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test and all the vaccinees had titers ≥0.5 IU per mL on day 14 which is considered as adequate for protection against
rabies. Thus, the present study showed that,
rabies post-exposure prophylaxis was safe and immunogenic despite changes in the route of administration and brand/type of
rabies vaccine.