Treatment for dog bites will soon be less painful

HYDERABAD: Painful anti-rabies shots on the stomach are on their way out in the state with the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) set to introduce a more potent vaccine that will be administered through the arm.
Dog bite victims have been receiving nerve tissue vaccinations on their stomach for the past three decades. Now, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has ordered it to be completely phased out by 2006.
Taking its place will be the more potent tissue culture vaccine, which will be available from some time next year.
The IPM is upgrading its central manufacturing laboratory in Nacharam to produce the new vaccine, institute director Dr M Laxmi Prasad Rao said.
The nerve tissue vaccine has effectively helped in preventing the onset of rabies in close to 48,000 dog bite victims between April 2002 and March this year alone.
But the 12-dose vaccine is painful as it is given around the belly-button. Moreover, it has to be taken on consecutive days. Dog bite victims get no relief as the vaccine is ineffective if not taken every day till the dosage is completed.
The nerve tissue vaccine is also administered in seven and 10 dose regimens, depending on the kind of wound inflicted by the dog bite.
On the other hand, the tissue culture vaccine is a five-dose intramuscular vaccine that is administered on the victim''s arm and is considered to be less painful than the other medicine.
The victim will not have to take the shots on consecutive days. The dosage can be spread over a month. "The state government has been notified about the upgraded facilities and equipment required to manufacture the tissue culture vaccine.
Once the infrastructure is provided, we will immediately begin work towards gradually phasing out the three-decade-old nerve tissue vaccine and replacing it with the tissue culture vaccine," Dr Prasad Rao said.
However, to meet the present demand for the nerve tissue vaccine, till the new vaccine is ready for use, the Institute of Preventive Medicine has upgraded it central manufacturing laboratory to meet WHO''s manufacturing standards. It will revive production, which was stopped in 2001, to meet the present demand from government hospitals in the state.
Last month, 3,555 people were administered the anti-rabies vaccine at the IPM. Dog-bite victims are given anti-rabies shots free of charge at the Institute''s Rabies Vaccination Centre, located at Narayanguda.