Incidence of Reactions Following Administration of Antirabies Serum

Abstract

But where the greater malady is fix'd The lesser is scarce felt. Shakespeare: King Lear, Act III, scene 4 Rabies in man is a uniformly fatal disease once clinical symptoms appear. In a human bitten by a potentially rabid animal, the only hope of rabies prevention lies in effective postexposure prophylaxis, which at the present time consists in the administration of antirabies serum (equine origin) followed, if indicated, by a course of duckembryo or nervous-tissue vaccine. Our hospital is located in an area with the greatest concentration of enzootic and epizootic rabies in the United States.¹ In 1963, over 31% of all rabid dogs in this country were reported from the US-Mexico border; of these 186 animals, 44 were from the city of El Paso alone.² Because of the high risk of rabies in the area, we have evolved a vigorous program of rabies prophylaxis, following the criteria