An immunogenicity study of a newly introduced purified Vero cell rabies vaccine (Abhayrab) manufactured in India.

Purified Vero cell culture rabies vaccine "Abhayrab" manufactured by Human Biologicals Institute, Ooty, India was subjected for immunogenicity studies. Pre-exposure study was undertaken on 60 healthy volunteers (Group I) with vaccination on days 0, 7 and 21. A group of 75 patients of category II (Group II), 67 of category III (Group III) were given post-exposure prophylaxis and 88 patients of category III were administered with rabies immunoglobulins (Group IV) along with post-exposure prophylaxis as per World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations with a booster on day 90. The volunteers and patients vaccinated showed very few adverse side effects. The blood samples collected from volunteers (Group I) on days 14, 35 and 365 and patients (Group II-IV) on days 14, 30, 90 and 365 showed geometric mean titres (GMT) of >0.5 IU/ml. The study indicated new rabies vaccine manufactured in India was found to be safe and immunogenic.