The preliminary technical phase of human rabies vaccine production has been conducted and it is now in the quality assurance stage before final approval, said Dr. Navid Dinparast, deputy for development at Pasteur Institute of Iran.
For years, animal rabies vaccine has been produced domestically, and human vaccine will be locally produced in the near future, Mehr news agency reported.
Rabies remains a global public health threat that kills more than 60,000 people annually and is ranked the seventh most infectious disease. Rabies Virus (RV) is 100% fatal, but also 100% preventable with anti-rabies vaccine.
In Iran every year 150,000 people are bitten by rabies-infected animals. Last calendar year (ended March 20), four people lost their lives as they failed to take anti-rabies injections.
