When I was a kid, one my childhood friends was bitten by a stray dog and had to get rabies vaccine. I remember how horrible that experience was for him. For fourteen days, he had to go to his doctor’s office every day for a shot that hurt like crazy and made him sick. I can still see the image of the places on his body where he received the shots. They were puffy, swollen, and painful to touch. The poor guy was miserable! From that memory I always feared having to get rabies vaccine.
All of that has changed, today. No longer is the vaccine given daily for 14 days. No longer do patients get sick and stay sick for 14 days. No longer are the shots as painful as before nor do they cause such severe injection site reactions. And no longer is it given only if you’re bitten by a suspicious animal—at least in Europe.
Last month, the European Medicine Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CMPH) met to issue new guidelines for a new Rabies vaccine which has been approved for use. The vaccine is called VaxRabeo and it’s made by Sanofi Winthrop. It’s an inactivated Rabies virus indicated for pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis. That’s a different approach; pre-exposure prophylaxis is a new indication this vaccine was designed to cover. The target population is everyone at any age, but its main indication is for people traveling to areas at high risk for exposure.
Post-exposure dosing for unvaccinated people is over a 28-day period with shots on days 0, 3, 7, 14, and 28 along with Rabies Immune Globulin on day 0. Previously-vaccinated patients need only take the vaccine on days 0 and 3. It is given intramuscularly. Adverse effects are injection site swelling and pain, muscle aches, and malaise (just feeling bad).
Rabies is rare in the U.S. but endemic in 3rd world countries. This vaccine sounds like a step forward in safety and efficacy against a potentially fatal disease. I don’t know where cost comes in on this vaccine, but the simplified dosing and improved safety and efficacy make it more desirable to recommend. Hopefully, the cost is not an issue, but most likely it is.
I would not think of this as an addition to the already complex immunization schedule we have, but more as an “as needed” vaccine you get if you’re planning to be a missionary in a remote part of Africa. It could save your life in that case.
Reference: Mehta Z. EU Panel Recommends New Rabies Vaccine for All Ages. medscape.com 2026 September 22.
