CDC Advisors Suggest Streamlining Postexposure Prophylaxis for Rabies

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is recommending reducing the vaccine schedule for postexposure prophylaxis to prevent human rabies in individuals who have not previously received rabies vaccine. The proposed schedule reduces the number of vaccine doses given from 5 doses to 4 doses. The schedule for individuals who had previously been vaccinated against rabies remains the same.

ACIP is making the recommendation because evidence fails to show additional benefit from a fifth dose and eliminating it would produce an estimated annual US cost savings of about $16.6 million. In the United States, about 23 000 individuals each year are exposed to potentially rabid animals and receive rabies postexposure prophylaxis. As a result of such preventive measures, human rabies is now rare in the United States, averaging only 1 or 2 cases annually since 1960.