New Delhi: A simpler rabies vaccination strategy could potentially offer children protection in advance against bites that may go unnoticed or unreported, according to a study by doctors in Delhi.
The study, done on 48 children between 2024 and 2025, found that 91% developed protective antibody levels within 28 days of receiving the vaccine shot. The potential advantage is that if a vaccinated child is exposed years later, the child would require only two booster doses on days 0 and 3 and would not require rabies immunoglobulin. India currently doesn’t have a policy for mandatory rabies vaccination among children, like it has for the rotavirus or polio, although private practitioners do offer a day zero, day seven and day 28 vaccination.
The study — titled “Immunogenicity of Single-Visit, Two-Site Intradermal Preexposure Rabies Prophylaxis in Children: A Prospective Interventional Study” –shows how a vaccination regimen can act as a shield for children in the case of an exposure much later. Larger studies are needed, but this small study shows that it is a possibility that vaccination can provide protection,” Anurag Agarwal of MAMC told TOI. A previous study by doctors from MAMC and GTB Hospital on dog-bite awareness also highlighted gaps in reporting and vaccination, the researchers said. The authors said that larger, controlled trials are required before a policy shift.
all the children who received a booster shot developed a protective response within seven days Although antibody levels declined close to six months after the shot. The study was conducted by Anurag Agarwal and Kanvi Sharma from the department of pediatrics, Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and Associated Hospitals, New Delhi; Surendra Bahadur Mathur from the department of pediatrics, Postgraduate Institute of Child Health, Noida; Vikas Manchanda from the department of microbiology, MAMC; Padinjaremattathil Thankappan Ullas from the rabies laboratory, encephalitis group, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune; and Anju Sharma from the state-level VRDL, department of microbiology, MAMC. “Even a single dose gives you a good amount of protection. The findings could eventually prompt a policy rethink on pre-exposure rabies vaccination, with the possibility of incorporating simpler schedules into public-health or school-based programmes. The current study, however, does not establish that the one-visit regimen should replace existing schedules.