efficacy of purified vero cell rabies vaccine (pvrv) under the zagreb regimen in iran

background: despite the effective pre- and post-exposure treatments, at least 60,000 deaths from rabies occur worldwide every year. post-exposure treatment is considered as one of the most significant measures for preventing human deaths in exposed individuals. the 2-1-1 rabies post-exposure treatment schedule known as zagreb regimen is an abbreviated immunization plan in which a tissue culture rabies vaccine is administered intramuscularly at two sites on day 0 and at one site on days 7 and 21. objectives: in this study the efficacy of rabies vaccine administration under zagreb regimen in an iranian group of patients attending pasteur institute of iran was evaluated. methods: rabies neutralizing antibody titer was measured in 75 serum samples collected from 25 volunteers receiving post exposure treatment by rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (rffit), and elisa. results: all patients were negative for rabies antibody in both elisa and frrit tests on day 0 . a satisfactory rabies virus antibody response with the titer of ≥0.5 iu/ml was detected in all patients on day 21 and two weeks after the completion of vaccination (day 35). conclusions: rabies immunization with rabies vero-cell vaccine (pvrv) under the 2-1-1 schedule (zagreb regimen) could result in an adequate immune response without any adverse effect. however a more comprehensive comparative study is underway to confirm these findings . vac res , 2014, 1 (1): 26-28