WHAT RABIPUR IS AND WHAT IT IS USED FOR?
Rabipur is supplied as lyophilised powder and solvent for solution for injection. Each dose of one millilitre contains ≥ 2.5 IU rabies virus antigen
Rabipur is one of a group of medicines called vaccines that interact with the immune system (the body’s natural defence against infections) to protect against diseases in the future. Rabipur is used to prevent or treat infection by the virus that causes rabies.
Rabies vaccine works by causing your body to produce its own protection (antibodies) against the virus. The vaccine contains rabies viruses that have been inactivated by chemical processing so that the vaccine cannot cause rabies but the viruses in it can still cause the immune system to make antibodies to them.
Rabipur can be used in 2 ways:
- to prevent rabies in people who may be at risk of catching the virus in the future. For example, people who work with animals or are travelling to parts of the world where rabies cases are known to occur.
or
- to treat people who are likely to have caught the virus already through contact with live or dead animals, as described below.
Rabies is an infection that can be caught by being bitten by an infected animal or by being scratched or even just licked by an animal, especially if the skin is already broken. Contact with animal snares that have been licked or bitten by infected animals can also cause infections in humans.
Animals that are perfectly well in themselves can carry the virus and pass it on to humans. These animals may or may not go on to develop rabies themselves. Contact with the carcasses of dead infected animals is also sometimes a way of catching the disease.
There is no treatment for rabies once there are symptoms of the infection present and in these cases the infection is always fatal. Prevention of the development of symptoms of infection and death depends on vaccination either before any possible contact with the virus or as soon as possible after contact with the virus, even if only suspected.