Safety of intradermal rabies vaccine as pre-exposure prophylaxis among veterinary students

Background: Animal bites are a major public health problem in our country. Pre-exposure vaccination using cell culture vaccines is a safe and effective method of preventing rabies and is recommended for anyone who will be at continual, frequent or increased risk of exposure to the rabies virus, as a result of their occupation, such as veterinarians, animal handlers and laboratory workers dealing with any lyssaviruses. The present study was done to assess the safety of purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine administered as pre-exposure regimen. Methods: The present study assessed the safety of purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine administered as a 3 dose intradermal pre-exposure vaccination in healthy volunteered veterinary students of Government Veterinary College, Bangalore. Results: 122 apparently healthy adults of both sex, between 18 and 30 years of age were enrolled in the study and 105 (86%) completed all three doses. A total of 342 doses of intradermal vaccine were administered, among which 38 adverse reactions were reported from 19 veterinary students. The adverse reactions were pain at the injection site 7 (2.1%), redness 13 (3.8%), itching at the site of injection 11 (3.2%), induration 6 (1.8%) and headache 1 (0.3%). All reactions subsided without any complication and none of them dropped out from the study because of any adverse drug reactions. Conclusions: Pre-exposure vaccination is a useful tool for protecting high risk groups and purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine has proved to be safe and well tolerated by intradermal route.