Rabies vaccination
In the UK, rabies vaccination is recommended for the following groups of people:
- laboratory workers who may be required to handle samples of the rabies virus
- people whose jobs mean that they regularly come into contact with animals that have been imported from abroad, such as people working at zoos, ports, airports and animal quarantine centres
- veterinary and technical staff who work for the government
- people who regularly handle bats
- health workers who treat anyone with a suspected or confirmed rabies infection
- people who are going to be working abroad in a job that brings them into contact with animals
Vaccination is also recommended for:
- any person travelling or living in parts of the world where the risk of rabies is moderate to high (see box, left) for more than a month, unless there is access to prompt, safe medical care
- any person travelling to parts of the world where the risk of rabies is moderate to high for less than a month, and their travel activities could increase their risk of being exposed to rabies, or they have limited access to medical care
The rabies vaccination consists of three injections over the course of a month.
The injections are not painful and are given into the skin on your upper arm. There are usually no serious side effects.
The vaccination is not available on the NHS so you will have pay for a course of the vaccine, either at your GP surgery or at a travel clinic. The price for the complete course of three doses ranges from £120 to £150.
As a general rule, pregnant women are usually advised to avoid rabies vaccinations. The vaccine is usually only recommended if the potential risk of exposure to rabies is thought to be high and there is limited access to medical care.
Further doses
For those people who continue to be a continual or reoccurring risk of rabies exposure (because of their job, for example) then further doses of the vaccine will be needed to maintain immunity against the rabies vaccine.
If this is the case with you then you should be given a single reinforcing dose of vaccine should be given one year after the primary course has been completed.
Further doses should be given at three- to five-year intervals after that.
Advice to travellers
When travelling in countries that are not rabies-free, do not touch any unknown animals and educate your children about the dangers of petting unknown animals. This is particularly true for animals that appear unusually tame because this is an early sign of the rabies virus in animals.
Examine your children daily for cuts and scratches and ask them how they got them. Make sure they know that being bitten by an animal is dangerous and they need to tell you about it.
See the Live Well section about travel health for more general information and advice about staying safe and healthy while travelling.
Quarantine and the pet travel scheme (PETS)
To keep countries rabies-free, it is important that there are strict public health measures to control stray animals, such as foxes. It is also important that the movement of potentially infected animals across borders into uninfected regions is controlled by strictly enforcing quarantine regulations. Animals that do not have a licence should not be brought into the UK.
The pet travel scheme (PETS) is a system that allows pet dogs, cats and ferrets from certain countries to enter the UK without going into quarantine, as long as they have been vaccinated. It also means that people in the UK can take their dogs, cats and ferrets to other European Union (EU) countries and return with them to the UK.
More information about the pet travel scheme can be found on the Directgov website.
