Timing of Intradermal Rabies Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Injections: Immunological Effect on Vaccination Response

Vaccines and Senior Travellers

Background: International tourist travel has been increasingly steadily in recent years, and looks set to reach unprecedented levels in the coming decades. Among these travellers, an increasing proportion is aged over 60 years, and is healthy and wealthy enough to be able to travel. However, senior travellers have specific risks linked to their age, health and travel patterns, as compared to their younger counterparts. Methods: We review here the risk of major vaccine-preventable travel-associated infectious diseases, and forms and efficacy of vaccination for these diseases. Results: Routine vaccinations are recommended for older persons, regardless of whether they travel or not (e.g., influenza, pneumococcal vaccines). Older individuals should be advised about the vaccines that are recommended for their age group in the framework of the national vaccination schedule. Travel-specific vaccines must be discussed in detail on a case-by-case basis, and the risk associated with the vaccine should be carefully weighed against the risk of contracting the disease during travel. Travel-specific vaccines reviewed here include yellow fever, hepatitis, meningococcal meningitis, typhoid fever, cholera, poliomyelitis, rabies, Japanese encephalitis, tick-borne encephalitis and dengue. Conclusion: The number of older people who have the good health and financial resources to travel is rising dramatically. Older travellers should be advised appropriately about routine and travel-specific vaccines, taking into account the destination, duration and purpose of the trip, the activities planned, the type of accommodation, as well as patient-specific characteristics, such as health status and current medications.

Factors influencing the immune response after a single-dose 3-visit pre-exposure rabies intradermal vaccination schedule: A retrospective multivariate analysis

BACKGROUND

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends intradermal (ID) rabies vaccination as a safe and immunogenic alternative to intramuscular administration. The aim of this study is to determine which factors influence the levels of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (RVNA) after a 3-visit ID rabies vaccination.

METHODS

This is a retrospective secondary data analysis study based on electronic health record vaccination data of Belgian military subjects who received ID rabies Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with a single-dose 3-visit regimen during the period 2014-2017. Logistic regression was performed to identify predictive factors of RVNA level ≥3.0 IU/mL and >10 IU/mL.

RESULTS

The second analysis performed on the 2025 subjects (100% seroconverted with a RVNA ≥ 0.5 IU/mL) shows a significantly better immune response in subjects younger than 30 years compared to all other age-groups, a gender-difference to predict RVNA ≥ 3.0 IU/mL (OR 2.30 [1.26-4.22] comparing "female" to "male") and the influence of the vaccination schedule (OR 2.28 [1.15-4.53] comparing "late - very variable" to "correct" schedule) to predict > 10 IU/ml. Multivariate analysis also demonstrates that a postponed serology control significantly influences the Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition Test (RFFIT).

CONCLUSION

Gender and age significantly influence the response to ID rabies vaccine. Timing of RVNA determination is important to correctly assess the response to vaccination. A single-dose 3-visit ID rabies PrEP schedule is a dose-sparing effective alternative to the double-dose 2-visit ID schedule. When the minimum time interval between doses is respected, RVNA determination is not necessary.