Intra-dermal Vaccine

An initiative by a team of Bangalore-based doctors who have discovered a new technique to inject the vaccine under the skin instead of into the muscles, which is the method being followed now. The intra-dermal route not only requires less quantity of vaccine but also brings down the cost. The technique would make the vaccine course more affordable, especially for the poor who constituted a majority of the dog bite victims. The first step in the case of a dog bite was to immediately wash the wound with soap and water and apply an antiseptic. A five-dose vaccination course had to be taken on days zero, three, seven 14 and 28, Dr. Madhusudana said. Dr. Madhusudana, who is also chairman of the Rabies in Asia Foundation (RIA), said new approaches to eradicate rabies in the subcontinent were under consideration. One of them was to administer vaccines to dogs through oral baits. Once immunity levels among a given dog population reached 70 per cent, the spread of the disease was expected to stop fully.

Source: hindu.comAdded: 20 February 2007