Studies in Anti-rabies Immunisation

Abstract

1. Statistical evidence and animal experiment have alike proved carbolised killed anti-rabies vaccine to be of undoubted efficacy in both pre-infectional and post-infectional treatment. Statistical evidence is furnished by the results of treatment of 90,000 patients, while experimental proof rests partly on the resistance shown by immunised animals to artificial infections with street virus, and partly on an estimation of degree and duration of rabicidal properties in their sera.2. The Bordet-Gengou reaction is of no value as a qualitative or quantitative test for the estimation of anti-rabies immunity.3. The efficacy of killed carbolised vaccine and probably of other antirabies vaccines is largely dependent on the concentration of the dosage and the period within which it is administered. Better results follow the giving of small doses over a number of days than the giving of larger doses over a shorter period.4. It is impossible to reduce below a certain limit the time over which the total quantity of vaccine ordinarily sufficient for complete immunisation can be usefully administered.5. The effect on rabbits of the subcutaneous injection of fresh-fixed virus is dependent on the quantity of virus introduced and on the duration of its period of administration. Few inoculations are more likely to cause death than several; repeated inoculations ordinarily confer immunity. Immunity thus acquired must have been produced within 11 or 12 days.