Three-Year Experience with 4-Site Intradermal Booster Vaccination with Rabies Vaccine for Postexposure Prophylaxis

Tantawichien, Terapong
Tantawichien, Thanphet
Supit, Chalida
Khawplod, Pakamatz
Sitprija, Visith

Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute and Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Reprints or correspondence: Dr. Terapong Tantawichien, Div. of Infectious Diseases, Dept. of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University Hospital, Rama IV Rd., Bangkok 10330, Thailand ([email protected]).

Received April 17, 2001

Received in revised form August 14, 2001

Clinical Infectious Diseases 33(12):p 2085-2087, December 15, 2001. | DOI: 10.1086/338155

For booster vaccination of previously immunized persons with potential exposure to rabies, the World Health Organization recommends 2 doses of cell-culture vaccine administered intramuscularly or intradermally on days 0 and 3. We believe that four 0.1-mL intradermal booster doses given on a single day could be used at no risk to the recipient. We studied use of a single booster vaccination on day 0 followed by four 0.1-mL intradermal doses of cell-culture rabies vaccines, and we determined that this is a safe, convenient, and economical regimen for postexposure treatment of previously vaccinated individuals.