Reducing the cost of post-exposure rabies prophylaxis: efficacy of 0.1 ml PCEC rabies vaccine administered intradermally using the Thai Red Cross post-exposure regimen in patients severely exposed to laboratory-confirmed rabid animals.

Purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine (PCECV) administered as 0.1 ml intradermally according to the Thai Red Cross (TRC) regimen could reduce the cost of PEP by up to 84% when compared to the traditional five-dose Essen regimen. To confirm the efficacy of 0.1 ml of PCECV using the TRC regimen, a clinical trial was conducted in 113 patients presenting with category III exposures from confirmed rabid animals at two bite referral centres in the Philippines. Patients were monitored monthly for 1 year after exposure. PCECV was well tolerated, no vaccine-related serious adverse events occurred and all patients were alive 1 year after their initial exposure.