Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses to various economical regimens of purified Vero cell rabies vaccine.
Purified Vero cell rabies vaccine (PVRV) is a new effective but inexpensive tissue culture rabies vaccine for human use. We investigated if the cost of immunization with PVRV could be further reduced by intradermal immunization. Fifty-eight subjects with low-risk exposure to rabies were randomized into 4 groups to receive full-dose (0.5 ml) intramuscular injection of PVRV on days 0, 3, 7, 14 and 28 or 4, 2 or 1 intradermal injections of PVRV (0.1 ml) on days 0, 3, and 7, followed by another intradermal injection on day 28. Neutralizing antibodies and specific cell-mediated response (CMIR) were sequentially followed up to day 36. The antibody levels in the intradermal groups increased with the number of injection sites and the levels achieved by the 2-site i.d. regimen were not significantly different from those obtained by the full-dose i.m. even though only 1/3 of the amount of PVRV was used. Specific CMIR occurred 1 week sooner in the 2 and 4-site i.d. regimens than the full-dose i.m. We therefore recommended that our 2-site i.d. regimen of PVRV should be further tested with a view to substituting it for the more expensive full-dose i.m. regimen in order to further reduce the cost of rabies prophylaxis particularly in the developing countries.
D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D007271:Injections, Intradermal; D007273:Injections, Intramuscular; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D011819:Rabies Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000276:immunology; D014709:Vero Cells
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D011819:Rabies Vaccines