To help with the decision to provide PEP, it is helpful to know as much as possible about the bite. When a human is bitten, it is important to find out whether the bite was provoked, whether the animal was vaccinated against rabies, whether the animal is in custody and can be quarantined for 10 days, the name and address of the owner, and when the bite occurred. Beside advising you on the need for PEP, we can tell you where intramuscular human diploid cell rabies vaccine and rabies immune globulin are available. There are currently no eastside locations that carry rabies immune globulin. Rabies vaccine and immune globulin are available though through Connaught.
Rabies is still a nearly universally fatal disease, and is irreversible when it becomes symptomatic.
Although the adverse side effects of vaccine are greatly diminished with diploid cell vaccine, vaccination is expensive. We have educational materials available for you or for your patients concerning bat exposures, animal bites, and rabies. The rate in 1997, 14.9 per 100,000 population, is only slightly lower than the rate for the previous two years. The majority of cases have occurred in school-aged children and adults. However, pertussis is more likely to be considered in the differential diagnosis when the ill person is an infant.