[FNLBeInformed] Human Rabies Vaccine Accidentally Contains Live Rabies Virus

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Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Human Rabies vaccine accidentally containing live rabies virus

recalled

 

[PROVE Note: People taking a rabies vaccine now have to worry about

being exposed to the fatal live rabies virus. In the manufacturing

process, a filter failed. Next time somebody tries to tell you the

flu vaccine can't give you the flu, or the IPV vaccine (inactivated

polio vaccine) can't give you polio, tell them mistakes happen in

manufacturing and send them this one.]

 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/04/03/vaccine.recall/index.html

 

Thousands of doses of rabies vaccine recalled

Drug firm: One lot had live virus; 3 called back as precaution

 

(CNN) -- A vaccine maker is recalling thousands of doses of rabies

vaccine after discovering through routine testing that one lot

contained live virus that could potentially harm human health.

 

The lot had not been distributed, Aventis Pasteur spokesman Len

Lavenda said in a telephone interview with CNN from the company's

U.S. headquarters in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania.

 

As a precaution, Aventis Pasteur is also recalling three other

batches of Imovax that were made at the same time, the Lyon, France-

based company said.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement

that the lots being recalled were distributed between September 23

and April 2, and " had passed all FDA-approved release tests,

including testing to confirm the absence of live virus, " suggesting

the risk to anyone who may have received the vaccine is small.

 

Still, anyone who received rabies vaccine between those dates should

contact their health care provider, the CDC dispatch said. No

unusual events associated with the recalled vaccine have been

reported, it added.

 

Rabies vaccine is made by killing live rabies virus. Injections of

the dead virus stimulate the body's immune system to develop

antibodies that kill the live virus.

 

That process went awry at the company's plant in Lyon, where a bulk

vaccine filter failed, Lavenda said. That's a critical step in the

production process because the solution that typically kills

isolated particles of the live virus may not inactivate large

particles of it, he said, adding that the filter has been fixed.

 

Human rabies is rare in the United States, with only 39 cases

diagnosed since 1990. But doctors treat possible exposures

aggressively because once symptoms develop, the disease is almost

always fatal.

 

Two groups of people get rabies vaccines: those who have been bitten

by an animal that is rabid or suspected of being rabid; and those at

risk of being bitten, such as veterinarians, zookeepers and people

traveling to regions where rabies is common.

 

Last year, in the United States, about 18,000 people at risk of

being bitten got preventive vaccinations, and another 40,000 got

them after being bitten.

 

The only people who need to do something as a result of the recall

are those who received the vaccine preventively, Lavenda said. The

others, in addition to getting the vaccine, would have been given

immune globulin, which contains antibodies that kill live virus.

Aventis will pay for those people to get an injection of immune

globulin, he said.

 

The company is also recalling vaccines that were distributed to 18

other countries, and will be sending its customers information about

the recall on Monday, Lavenda said.

 

-

Dawn Richardson

PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education)

prove (email)

http://vaccineinfo.net/ (web site)

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PROVE provides information on vaccines, and immunization policies

and practices that affect the children and adults of Texas. Our

mission is to prevent vaccine injury and death and to promote and

protect the right of every person to make informed independent

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