Some 3,000 people who had a rabies vaccination between February 27 and April 8 this year may need further doses, following the recall of massive quantities of vaccine earlier this month by the French company Aventis Pasteur - the world\'s largest producer of the medicine. Quality checks revealed traces of live rabies virus in a single batch of vaccine, which was not released, but the manufacturer has decided to recall batches produced at the same time as a precautionary measure.
A modified strain of the rabies virus is used during vaccine production, but is killed later in the process. Any surviving virus could theoretically cause severe illness. Those who were vaccinated at this time should contact their GP or travel clinic to find out if the vaccine they received was from one of these batches. However, efforts to avoid undue alarm have left many unaware of the problem, some of whom may now be abroad and out of contact.
While it is very unlikely that any contaminated doses have been released, Aventis has recalled 6,700 vials in the UK. A spokesman for the company told The Daily Telegraph that 3,000 had so far been traced.