Reducing Cost of Rabies Post Exposure Prophylaxis: Experience of a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pakistan

Background

Rabies is a uniformly fatal disease, but preventable by timely and correct use of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Unfortunately, many health care facilities in Pakistan do not carry modern life-saving vaccines and rabies immunoglobulin (RIG), assuming them to be prohibitively expensive and unsafe. Consequently, Emergency Department (ED) health care professionals remain untrained in its application and refer patients out to other hospitals. The conventional Essen regimen requires five vials of cell culture vaccine (CCV) per patient, whereas Thai Red Cross intradermal (TRC-id) regimen requires only one vial per patient, and gives equal seroconversion as compared with Essen regimen.

Methodology/Principal Findings

This study documents the cost savings in using the Thai Red Cross intradermal regimen with cell culture vaccine instead of the customary 5-dose Essen intramuscular regimen for eligible bite victims. All patients presenting to the Indus Hospital ED between July 2013 to June 2014 with animal bites received WHO recommended PEP. WHO Category 2 bites received intradermal vaccine alone, while Category 3 victims received vaccine plus wound infiltration with Equine RIG. Patients were counseled, and subsequent doses of the vaccine administered on days 3, 7 and 28. Throughput of cases, consumption utilization of vaccine and ERIG and the cost per patient were recorded.

Conclusions/Significance

Government hospitals in Pakistan are generally underfinanced and cannot afford treatment of the enormous burden of dog bite victims. Hence, patients are either not treated at all, or asked to purchase their own vaccine, which most cannot afford, resulting in neglect and high incidence of rabies deaths. TRC-id regimen reduced the cost of vaccine to 1/5^th of Essen regimen and is strongly recommended for institutions with large throughput. Training ED staff would save lives through a safe, effective and affordable technique.