Conference abstract

Updated state of the art of rabies prophylaxis in humans

Pan African Medical Journal - Conference Proceedings. 2019:10(14).13 Mar 2019.
doi: 10.11604/pamj-cp.2019.10.14.826
Archived on: 13 Mar 2019
Contact the corresponding author
Keywords: Rabies, vaccination schedule, rabies immunoglobulins, vaccine protocol
Plenary

Updated state of the art of rabies prophylaxis in humans

Laurent Dacheux1,&

1Institut Pasteur, Unité Dynamique des Lyssavirus et Adaptation à l’Hôte, Centre National de Référence de la Rage, Centre Collaborateur de l’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé de Référence et de Recherche pour la Rage, Paris, France

&Corresponding author
Laurent Dacheux, Institut Pasteur, Unité Dynamique des Lyssavirus et Adaptation à l’Hôte, Centre National de Référence de la Rage, Centre Collaborateur de l’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé de Référence et de Recherche pour la Rage, Paris, France

Abstract

Introduction: rabies prophylaxis is one of the major components of the fight against human rabies. Based on the administration of a series of rabies vaccines according to precise protocols, in association with specific immunoglobulins in the most severe cases, it definitively excludes the development of the disease if administrated quickly after the exposure (and before the first clinical syndroms).

Methods: originally conceived by Louis Pasteur and successfully administered as early as 1885, it has regularly evolved over time, according to the technological advances in vaccine production, the adaptation of the vaccination schedules and the introduction of specific rabies immunoglobulins. These successive evolutions have continued to lead to the major objective of making rabies prophylaxis as reliable and accessible as possible, particularly in terms of cost (direct and indirect), in the enzootic areas in low or middle countries, in Asia and Africa.

Results: thus, shorter vaccine protocols, requiring reduced vaccine amounts, have recently been validated by WHO and published in April 2018, together with the global review of human rabies prophylaxis. These new recommendations are based on the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization, and should improve the conditions for the dissemination and the implementation of this rabies prophylaxis, contributing to the elimination of human deaths due to canine rabies by 2030.

Conclusion: the main revisions and their rationales are the subject of this presentation, along with the description of the new vaccine protocols.