Purified equine rabies immune globulin: a safe and affordable alternative to human rabies immune globulin.

Reported are the results of a retrospective study of 3156 patients who were treated at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Bangkok, with equine rabies immune globulin (ERIG). Only 51 patients (1.6%) exhibited serum-sickness-like reactions, none of which persisted for more than a week, and only 8 of these patients (15%) were treated with a short course of steroids. One patient, whose skin test was negative, had an immediate anaphylactic reaction to ERIG that responded to parenteral therapy with epinephrine and hydrocortisone sodium succinate. Serum-sickness-like reactions were more frequent among females and over 21-year-olds but were exceedingly rare (0.086%) among children under 10 years of age.