Even as the efficacy of the anti-rabies vaccine currently administered in the State has been called into question, the presence of virus neutralising antibodies detected in the ante-mortem samples of blood and cerebrospinal fluid collected from the 12-year-old who died of rabies in Pathanamthitta indicates that the vaccine has indeed been effective against rabies virus, public health experts point out.
The samples were tested at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.
The RT-PCR test on the samples detected the presence of the rabies virus, while the Rapid Fluorescent Focus Inhibition test indicated the presence of rabies virus neutralising antibodies.
