Systematic Booster after Rabies Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis to Alleviate Rabies Antibody Monitoring in Individuals at Risk of Occupational Exposure

Perrine Parize (1, 2) , Jérémie Sommé (3) , Laura Schaeffer (4) , Agnès Durand (5) , Florence Ribadeau-Dumas (1, 2) , Sheherazade Benabdelkader (1, 2) , Arnaud Tarantola (1, 2) , Johann Cailhol (6) , Julia Goesch (6) , Lauriane Kergoat (1, 2) , Anne-Sophie Le Guern (7) , Marie-Laurence Mousel (3) , Laurent Dacheux (1, 2) , Paul-Henri Consigny (6) , Arnaud Fontanet (4, 8) , Beata Francuz (3) , Hervé Bourhy (1, 2)

1 Lyssavirus, épidémiologie et neuropathologie - Lyssavirus Epidemiology and Neuropathology
2 CNR - Centre National de Référence de la Rage - National Reference Center Rabies
3 IP - Institut Pasteur [Paris]
4 Epidémiologie des Maladies Emergentes - Emerging Diseases Epidemiology
5 Cerballiance
6 Centre d'infectiologie Necker-Pasteur [CHU Necker]
7 CMIP - Centre Médical de l'Institut Pasteur
8 CNAM - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [CNAM]

Pre-exposure rabies prophylaxis (PrEP) is recommended for people at frequent or increased risk of professional exposure to lyssavirus (including rabies virus). PrEP provides protection against unrecognized exposure. After the primary vaccination, one's immune response against rabies may decline over time. We aimed to evaluate the immune response to rabies in individuals immunized for occupational reasons before and after a booster dose of the rabies vaccine. With this aim, we retrospectively documented factors associated with an inadequate response in individuals vaccinated for occupational purposes. Our findings analyzed data from 498 vaccinated individuals and found that 17.2% of participants had an inadequate antibody titration documented after their primary vaccination without the booster, while inadequate response after an additional booster of the vaccine was evidenced in 0.5% of tested participants. This study showed that a single booster dose of vaccine after PrEP conferred a high and long-term immune response in nearly all individuals except for rare, low responders. A systematic rabies booster after primary vaccination may result in alleviating the monitoring strategy of post-PrEP antibody titers among exposed professionals.

Mots clés: rabies; pre-exposure prophylaxis; humoral immunity; booster immunization; occupational health

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Virologie

Perrine Parize, Jérémie Sommé, Laura Schaeffer, Agnès Durand, Florence Ribadeau-Dumas, et al.. Systematic Booster after Rabies Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis to Alleviate Rabies Antibody Monitoring in Individuals at Risk of Occupational Exposure. Vaccines, 2021, 9 (4), pp.309. ⟨10.3390/vaccines9040309⟩. ⟨pasteur-03655265⟩