Why Do You Need a Booster if You Had Pre-Exposure Rabies Shots?
The Real Truth about Vaccines
One thing about vaccines that often confuses people is the need for extra booster shots if you get bit after having pre-exposure rabies shots.
After all, shouldn’t those rabies shots have protected you?
Why Do You Need a Booster if You Had Pre-Exposure Rabies Shots?
Well, this recommendation is mostly because rabies is nearly always deadly if you aren’t very well protected, so there is no tolerance for any extra risk.
That’s why, the recommendations are for those who have had rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis to still get two rabies booster shots after an exposure.
Without pre-exposure prophylaxis, they would also get HRIG and four or five rabies shots after a bite or scratch.
But that doesn’t mean that rabies vaccines don’t provide long term immunity.
They can!
“Good responders, with titers > or = 30 IU/mL, were protected for at least 10 years. An algorithm for differentiation between good responders and poor responders with respect to vaccine booster strategies is proposed.”
Antibody persistence following preexposure regimens of cell-culture rabies vaccines: 10-year follow-up and proposal for a new booster policy
Unless you are a poor responder…
And who wants to take that chance?
Or take the chance on checking a titer after a bite and then trusting that result instead of getting a recommended booster?
Yeah, no one, since the risk if you are wrong is that you will almost certainly die with rabies.
And while there are anecdotal reports of people who have been exposed to rabies after receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis and not developing rabies without boosters, there are also case reports where they did.
“In November 1982, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya completed pre-exposure rabies prophylaxis with a standard 3 dose intradermal (ID) series of human diploid cell rabies vaccine (HDCV). In May 1983, she was bitten by a dog and died of rabies 3 months later.”
Pre-exposure rabies immunization with human diploid cell vaccine: decreased antibody responses in persons immunized in developing countries
So don’t take any chances!
Especially not with rabies…
More on Rabies Vaccines
When Was the Last Time Someone Died from Being Bitten by a Rabid Dog in the United States?
Rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis elicits long-lasting immunity in humans
Rabies patient becomes first fatal case in US after post-exposure treatment, report says
Death from rabies: The reason being poor compliance to vaccination or it’s failure