Infectious Disease Specialist Questions Infectious Disease Specialist

Questions about the Rabies vaccine?

I am someone who suffers from an intense phobia of Rabies. Fifty days ago, I woke up with a mark on my face. It looked like a crease from sleeping or something pressed up against my face but I can't help but think it came from a bat that slipped into my room, scratched me, and then left. I searched my room, and couldn't find any bat but I was so scared I went to my doctor ten days later. He decided to calm me down by giving me the pre-exposure prophylaxis regimen of three doses given on days 0, 7, and 21 instead of the four doses and immunoglobulin of the post-exposure prophylaxis regimen given on days 0, 3, 7, and 14. My questions are, did I get enough vaccine to sufficiently protect me from rabies if it was a rabid animal that caused the mark on my face? And what is the difference between pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis besides the extra dose and immunoglobulin? Do they produce the same amount of antibodies, just that the pre is slower at producing them than the post?

Male | 23 years old

1 Answer

InfectiousDiseaseSpecialistInfectiousDiseaseSpecialist
I doubt you had an exposure. Your prophylaxis started 10 days after the exposure. An inoculation on the face 50 days ago = no infection.

G. Dickinson
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