Postexposure antirabies therapy.

The physician must determine the need for systemic postexposure antirabies therapy by a series of specific questions: Was there really a bite? If domesticated, was the animal adequately vaccinated? Was the animal behaving normally or was the bite unprovoked? Almost all wild animal bites should be considered probably or definitely due to rabies. If systemic antirabies therapy is needed, only the combination of human rabies immune globulin and duck-embryo rabies vaccine should be used, not vaccine alone.