Thanks, vetbridge and Dr. One-L! This is very helpful. Looks like I’ll amend my rabies lesson to say that no one has ever survived rabies if they started showing symptoms before they got treatment. That oughtta scare the little tykes! 
Daniel
I have received the pre-prophylaxis rabies series and it was about $1,800.00 for the three shots. (Not that I paid that, as I have insurance, but that’s what the normal cost was.)
One thing that I can think of is that with the canine we have the luxury of challenging vaccinates with the virus. A group of dogs is vaccinated. Another group (controls) is not vaccinated. All dogs are then exposed to the virus and you see how many control animals get sick/die compared to the vaccinates. This testing is not an option with humans.
In the case of humans, measurements of antibody titer are used to gauge effectiveness, which is less accurate in some ways.
In both species the vaccine is very effective. In fact, one statistic I have heard is that “in modern times” there has never been a case of rabies in a pet animal that has a history of having recieved two rabies vaccines in its lifetime.
missbunny gave us the info on what the cost to the patient was for the series. I wanted to add in that I did call our doctor’s office to find out what their cost was to acquire the human vaccine for a comparison to vetbridge’s report on the cost of the animal vaccine. Turns out it costs our doctor $125/vial (1 dose) to get it from the manufacturer (in our case, Chiron). So there definitely is a huge cost difference in vaccine labeled as “human” and vaccine labeled as “pet”.
Probably a combination of being overly-cautious when it comes to human health and rabies prevention (as I noted, we had one staff member who had protective immunity for 1 year after receiving only 2 instead of the recommended 3 shots) and the fact that it’s difficult enough to get pet owners to come in once a year for vaccines, let alone 3 times in a few weeks. I do know that when I moved back into the area and couldn’t remember when my cats’ last rabies shots were, the vet clinic said that they’d have to do the first 2 a year apart and then go to the every 3 year regime. Rabies immunity probably lasts much longer and may only need the one shot every 5-10 years in humans and animals, but it’s better to be cautious. Like I said earlier, we re-titer staff every two years and give the booster only if needed, and it’s not needed that often. Veterinarians give the shot tp pets every 3 years routinely without doing a titer because logistically it’s a lot easier and it guarantees that people will bring their animals to a veterinarian–even if it’s just the one who does the vaccine clinic–at regular intervals just for a visual check and vaccines if nothing else.
Additional…
One of our vets just returned to the office, so I asked her about why pets are given the annual shots versus humans getting the series over a month. She responded that the frequency of vaccinations in animals was determined due to extensive research in animals to determine the optimal dosage frequency to maintain constant immunity for a given species. In humans, that level of research isn’t possible but it is feasible to monitor titers on a routine basis in those that are considered “at risk” (it wouldn’t be feasible for the population as a whole). Over time, the current regimen has been shown to provide a pretty stable immunity over the long term.
Hope that makes sense and answers the question.
/drool … I love zoos, aquariums, planetariums and museums of all sorts=) and I have wanted to see some of the australian animals a friend who emmigrated there talks about seeing in their zoos … Hm, it is a pity when I come down for Baltcon at the end of May it wont be opened =( I guess I will have to find an excuse to go there this fall=)
I’m enjoying this thread (stuff I never knew about, but should), but I have one question:
What’s a “titer”?
Titer refers to the level of something in the blood; in this case, rabies antibody. Rabies antibody titers are reported in IU/mL (international units/milliliter). Unfortunately, I’m not sure what an IU of rabies antigen equates to either in terms of mass or quantity. The positive titer results I’ve seen on our staff are normally in the range of 2-4 IU/mL…though the one woman who actually had the post-exposure treatment currently has a titer of 16 IU/mL.
I should caution that our upcoming exhibit currently is planned to only have one mammal species…grey-headed flying foxes. Most really unique Australian mammal species are either too large for our exhibit (an indoor walkthrough similar to our existing South American rainforest exhibit…but with really big bats!!!), inappropriate for the habitat (northern Australian river gorges), or impossible to actually obtain (eg the platypus, which was discussed in another thread; currently the only zoos that have them are in Australia and the Aussie gov’t won’t let anyone else in the world have them for reasons with which I can’t really argue). We generally don’t have a lot of mammals (16 right now, 10 of which are dolphins) since we are an aquarium and not a zoo. Makes USDA inspection time a lot easier. 
However, we do already have a number of very interesting turtles (especially the snake-necked and Fly River/pig-nosed turtles…though I think 40 of the latter are a bit much), lizards, and snakes as well as some beautiful birds (cockatoos, lorikeets, and parrot species so far and, of course, kookaburras; finches are pending) already in holding. Oh, and crocodiles…but the less-nasty freshwater kind (since we’re not totally insane, though the fact that we do have death adders may make you think otherwise). We’ll also have lots of fish, including some large barramundi which were very, very expensive to obtain (the fish themselves are relatively cheap; it’s the shipping cost that kills you), archerfish (which spit at you if you waggle your fingers over the tank), and lungfish.
Opening Spring 2005…if it stops raining long enough for the construction guys to actually get back on schedule…
Ah ha. Thanks much!
A friend of mine is an emergency room doctor in Pueblo, CO. A number of years ago when we both lived in Green River, WY we were talking about rabies. What follows is what I remember of that conversation.
The % of death once symptoms show up is virtually 100%. The death rate if treatment starts at once is very low.
THe longer the period between the exposure and the start of shots the greater the chance of dying.
You can still die from rabies even if the shots are started at once. Though I think this is rather rare.
In the late 70’s a teenage boy, IIRC, in New Mexico survived rabies using only the standard treatment. Don’t remember what standard treatment might be however. Though my guess is that it consists of mostly keeping the patient as comfortable as possible. The rabies pretty much destroyed the boy’s brain and he was left a vegatable.
I had the series of shots after being bitten by a cat in the mid 50’s. Other than the novelty of getting one in the stomach I don’t remember much about it.