Shorter rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) schedule safe and effective.

Shorter rabies PrEP schedule safe and effective. In healthy participants, intradermal administration of a double dose of rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, given during two clinic visits was safe and noninferior to a standard three-visit schedule, according to recent data. Given the efficacy of the shortened schedule, which may result in wider acceptance, Patrick Soentjens, MD, PhD, head of the travel clinic at Queen Astrid Military Hospital’s center for infectious diseases in Brussels, and colleagues said intradermal (ID) administration of a two-dose, two-visit PrEP regimen is now one of the first-line schedules recommended by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization for international travelers and individuals at risk for rabies in endemic countries. “Rabies represents an unremitting and neglected global challenge. As such, new shortened ID schedules aim to be cost-, dose- and time-sparing, while maintaining safety and effectiveness,” the researchers wrote in Clinical Infectious Diseases. “Shortened PrEP ID schedules, using simpler low-dose vaccine regimens, can be considered an illustration that less can be more.”