Reduction in the dosage schedule of BPL-inactivated neural tissue vaccine for rabies prophylaxis in man.

There exist two different immunization schedules for neural tissue rabies vaccine (NTV) for human use in India, the amount of vaccine given by the schedule recommended by Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli, being higher than that recommended by Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor. A study was therefore undertaken to assess the feasibility of reducing the CRI dosage schedule for rabies prophylaxis. The antirabies antibody response in laboratory animals and human subjects following 7, 10 and 14 daily doses of NTV with or without administering rabies immune globulin (RIG) was much higher than the minimum protective level of 0.5 IU/ml of serum. Based on these results, the CRI schedule could be reduced from 14 x 5 ml of NTV to 10 x 5 ml in class II and class III rabies exposure cases.