Home > Journals > Indian Journal of Communicable Diseases

Indian Journal of Communicable Diseases

Submit your article Read this Journals View all journals
Full Text (PDF)
Review Article

Is There Hidden Wastage of Anti-Rabies Vaccine and Rabies Immunoglobulinsin India Due to Excess Vaccination?

Suneela Garg* , Suneela Garg* , Saurav Basu** , Archana Ramalingam***

Author Information

Licence:



Indian Journal of Communicable Diseases 2(2):p 87-89, July - December 2016. | DOI: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/ijcd.2395.6631.2216.8

How Cite This Article:

Timeline

Received : N/A         Accepted : N/A          Published : N/A

Abstract

 Rabies is a major public health challenge in India with the highest burden globally. Anti rabies vaccine (ARV) and anti rabies serum (ARS) provide safe and effective post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in animal bite cases. However, providing universal PEP to incident animal bite cases is a major challenge in resource constrained settings especially due to the high cost of vaccine and serum. Hence, prevention of vaccine wastage is indispensable for rabies control in the developing world. Guidelines for rabies prophylaxis in incident animal bite cases with previous history of exposure and associated PEP recommend a two dose booster regimen on day 0 and 3. Nevertheless, evidence from some socioepidemiological studies on rabies reported from India suggest that there exist several patient and provider related factors which promote an unwarranted universal repetition of complete course of rabies PEP in re- exposure to animal bite cases. This potentially results in an avoidable wastage of 2 doses of ARV and/or ARS per animal bite case who have previously received full course of rabies PEP. Animal bite victims with low socioeconomic and educational status have greater likelihood of being subject to excess rabies PEP vaccination. This is often due to their inability to produce related medical records and lack of awareness of the treatment received during past animal bite exposure. Lack of knowledge relating to postexposure schedule in previous vaccinated cases among residents and medical graduates may also contribute to rabies vaccine wastage.

Keywords: Rabies; India; PEP; Vaccine Wastage; Vaccination.

References

No records found.


About this article

Cite this article

Licence:



Received Accepted Published
N/A N/A N/A
DOI: DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/ijcd.2395.6631.2216.8

Keywords


Article Level Metrics

Last Updated

Sunday 06 September 2026, 01:43:04 (IST)

1118

Accesses

5
231
00

Citations


NA
NA
NA

Download citation


Article Keywords

Keyword Highlighting

Highlight selected keywords in the article text.


Timeline

Received N/A
Accepted N/A
Published N/A

licence




Access this article

Reprint Order Form
Buy this Article
Institutional Subscriptions

Share