Persistence of antibodies in children after intradermal or intramuscular administration of preexposure primary and booster immunizations with purified Vero cell rabies vaccine

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Abstract
The use of intradermal (id) injections of purified Vero cell rabies vaccine (PVRV) for preexposure prophylaxis has not been well-established. We studied the safety and immunogenicity of id and intramuscular (im) PVRV injections for primary and booster preexposure immunizations. One of two rabies preexposure PVRV regimens comprising three doses of either 0.1 ml id or 0.5 ml im administered during 28 days was assigned at random to 190 school children. One booster dose was given 1 year later either id or im, according to their initial randomization group. Serologic results were available from 155 (82%) children at 1 year after primary immunization and 118 (62%) children at 2 years after booster. Although children vaccinated id had significantly lower rabies-neutralizing antibody titers after primary immunization as well as after booster than children vaccinated im (P Purified Vero cell rabies vaccine appears to be safe and immunogenic for primary and booster preexposure immunizations. An id PVRV preexposure regimen should be useful especially for rabies-endemic countries with low per capita income.