human rabies shot

fileen

Does any one know the risks etc associated with the human rabies shot? Also, why is there a world wide shortage? I have to be vaccinated against rabies for work at the large animal surgery at my university and I cant seem to get a hold of the vaccine. I keep being told there is a world wide shortage. I have never had it and Im worried about possible side effects. I cant seem to find anything on the human vaccine, although theres lots about the one for our pets.

mgb_phys

The shortage seems to be just one plant manufactuing it and they temporarily closed to meet new regs.
see http://www.cdc.gov/RABIES/

JorgeLobo

True of many prophylactic/therapeutic treatments for relatively rare conditions. It's not financially viable to produce in light of extensive giovernmental controls. some are no doubt needed but many are just bureaucratic BS.

Talk to your vet.

mgb_phys

It's a particular problem for vaccines.
They are often very expensive to manufacture (especially those using live virus / animal serum).
They are also a bad sale - ideally you only sell one dose/person.

For 'give-them-to-every-baby' type vaccines the legal liability is huge together with the bad press from a one in a million bad reaction. The adverse reaction doesn't even have to exist - see the MMR jab scares.
If you develop a vaccine for a tropical disease you have to almost give it away for free else you are an evil drug company preying on suffering in Africa.

Most pharmaceutical companies have just got out of the vaccine market completely. It's especially ironic when they need to give prophylactic rabies shots to their own researchers working on animal tissue samples.

Sometimes especially university/teaching hospitals will give you vaccination in return for platelet donation or similair.

fileen

I am signed up for a clinic offered by the university but its going to cost me a LOT of money. Probably more than I will make at work. Unfortunately its not an experience I can pass up. I was just confused why there would be a shortage, Im under the impression that rabies is a real problem in many parts of Asia and South America. I didnt realize that it was only being produced by one company. I hope I dont have a bad reaction to it. I really dont like vaccines in the first place.

Proton Soup

rabies is a real problem in north america. as recently as a year or two ago, we were dropping food pellets with an oral vaccine for raccoons to find.

mgb_phys

Remember the preventative vaccine only gives you more time to get a shot if you are bitten - it DOESN'T stop you getting rabies.
You should probably also get tetanus and whatever multi-strain hepatitis one they give to medics these days.

fileen

Im up to date on my tetanus, but I havent had any hepatitis. Im working a vet clinic, and the one I worked at before didnt care, I just had to promise to stay away if something came in that was suspected of carrying rabies, and if I did come in contact I had to agree to go to the hospital immediately. It seems silly to me, as Ill be working exclusively with horses and cattle, and although they can catch it, its extremely rare. Most animals (especially if they are worth enough to warrant paying the university for special surgery) will be up to date on their shots. I will be exclusively working in the surgery, and so I imagine the chances of an animal coming in for surgery and carrying rabies is pretty small. I am under the impression that a person has to have body fluids from an infected animal enter the blood stream. My Doctor thought I was nutts when I told him I needed it. He cant get me the vaccine unless I've been bit by a rabid animal. I think its a pretty serious virus, and those who will be at a higher risk of contracting it should have it available to them. I cant believe the price of it, and Im getting it "cheap".

mgb_phys

Does he understand you want the Pre-exposure vaccine - for people who may be exposed as part of their job?
The danger is if somebody brings in a pet that has been bitten by a possibly wild animal that may have rabies.

It all depends on your employer, a colleague had to have the shots to work with animal dropping samples - in a country that is rabies free!

fileen

Yes he knows I need the pre-exposure vaccine, he knows me quite well and understands I need it for work. He just thought it was pretty crazy for the surgery to require it now when its so hard to get. He cant give out the pre-exposure vaccine, I would have to get it myself and then have it sent to him to administer. Its almost impossible to find right now.

Moonbear

I wonder if there's really any difference between the vaccine approved for human use and the ones given to other animals. Some days, I think I'd rather have a vet treat me anyway.

Everywhere I've worked, the pre-exposure vaccine was optional, and since I wasn't in states where rabies was common, I would pass on it...the possible side effects sounded too common to justify getting an optional vaccine. Of course, now I work in a state where rabies does exist. I don't work with animals that will have rabies, but there's more likelihood of encountering a rabid raccoon now, and of course, now the vaccine isn't even obtainable.

Ukitake Jyuushirou

There is a difference between animal and human rabies vaccine. In veterinary medicine the rabies vaccine will sometimes cause the animals to develop vaccine related sarcoma. It has something to do with the adjuvant used in the vaccine that causes a reaction later on in the animal's life. In human medicine however there isn't any such cases (not that I know of).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine-associated_sarcoma

My advice would be to get the rabies vaccine, dying of rabies is simply not a pleasant way to die. Just go on youtube.com and search for "boy with rabies" to get a picture of what is it like to suffer from rabies. There is no cure, nothing modern medicine can do for you once the rabies virus gets into your neurones.

I'm going for my rabies vaccine soon as soon as I can find a hospital that has does it cheaply. Its called RABIDPUR vaccine, and it costs like $100 for 1 shot, and I need 3 of those.

http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=au

Moonbear

The vaccine is available again for pre-exposure vaccination.
http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/news/RabVaxupdate.html

Monia19

Well, one risk is the cost! I just received the post exposure shots that were finished with 3 follow-up shots over one month. They made me feel dizzy, nauseaus and gave me a headache but it went away after about 2 days of getting each shot. I feel okay now. I'm pretty upset about the bill though. The ER was the only place that had the post exposure vaccines and they've turned out to be very expensive. They charged over $9,200 for the initial shots and one follow-up shot. I still haven't gotten the bill for the last 2. I live in MI. I don't know how they can get away with charging this much. Most of the cost was for the vaccine itself. I'm now searching around to see what other people are paying. It looks like the going rate is 1- 2.5 thousand dollars.

CindyIL

Monia19, our family had to go through the whole rabies vaccination (5 of us). We are in total shock over the amount the hospital is charging. We had no choice of where to go as it was the only place available to us. We have not received all of our bills but we do know that the initial shot was $11,000 for my husband and each follow-up shot was around $980. We are searching too for answers as to why it's so high. All I've found so far states a much lower cost, especially for the initial shots. Do you have anything further to add from what you found out? I'd love to know. We live in IL.

Evo

Why would 5 of you have to get rabies vaccines?

Also, please pay attention to when someone posted, the person to whom you directed your question hasn't posted since their first post in February. Also, they stated they had to get post exposure shots.

Kenjay20

Evo, I just returned from the ER after my final rabies shot due to a bat bite. I got home at 4 p.m. and at 4:45 the phone rang with my new financial councelor from the hospital on the other end. No one in the ER even hinted as to how much this would all cost. The woman on the phone told me that so far I owed $10,400. That was for the initial round of shots and the second shot. I'm assuming the remainder will be about $4000 or so. I guess I will try to settle with them for a lesser amount. Could you let me know how you made out?