RABIES VACCINE – TYPE OF VACCINE  A person can be protected against rabies by Anti-Rabies Vaccine.

Three types of Vaccine are available:

• Nerve tissue vaccines: These are derived from nervous tissue of animals. 7 – 14 doses are required to be given in theabdomen, depending on the age and grade of exposure. Nowadays these vaccines are not used due to their side effects such as post-vaccination paralysis (may even cause death).
• Duck embryo vaccines: These do not have the side effectsas mentioned above.
• Cell culture vaccines: These are of two types –
  • Human Diploid Cell Vaccine (HDCV): Efficacy is almost 100%. It has mild side effects. The effect is same as PCEC vaccine. The only difference being that this vaccine is costly.
  • Purified Chick Embryo Cell Vaccine (PCEC) – Efficacy is almost 100%. It has mild side effects.

Most commonly used vaccine is the Purified Chick Embryo Cell Vaccine (PCEC) and Human Diploid Cell Vaccine (HDCV).

Rabies vaccine is:

• sterile, stable, inactivated cell-culture vaccine for human use by injection.
• derived from material that is grown in rabbit brain. It is refined and cultured with the Human Diploid Cell strain or the Purified Chick Embryo cells to create the vaccine.