• Question from:Vanessa

As I understand it, someone who is bitten by a rabid animal (and has not been previously vaccinated) should be given shots of:

1.'rabies immunoglobulin'
2. and also started on a 'rabies vaccine', with several shots over a 3-4 weeks period.

If, however, we say the victim in unable to get/afford the 'rabies immunoglobulin' shot, but someone else was (a universal blood donar who hasn't been bitten), would it work for them to get the shot, then give blood to the victim? If the 'rabies immunoglobulin' shot gives the antibodies that fight rabies to the healthy person, and then via a blood transfusion, some of these antibodies were transfered to the victim, wouldn't that be the same as directly giving the victim the shot? But then I'm working off of high school biology only...

I feel like I should provide some explanation for your time and troubles, so I'll just add here that I'm doing some musing for a story plot.

Thanks in advance!

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  • University of Bristol
  • Posts: 2,463

The rabies immunoglobulin comes from the plasma of people who have already been inoculated with rabies vaccine and is then highly concentrated. Just giving a blood transfusion from a single "normal" individual will have no protective effect at all.

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  • Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille-Luminy (IBDML), Marseille
  • Posts: 79

Hi Vanessa -

There is actually a pretty surreal treatment that sometimes works for people who don't get the vaccine in time.  Its called the Milwaukee protocol.  Basically, the idea is that the real killer is that the virus causes a neurotransmitter imbalance in the brain.  Patients are put into a coma, treated with ketamine, which acts as a neurotransmitter receptor antagonist that protects the brain, and with antivirals drugs.  They are kept under until the virus is largely cleared from their system, and then (hopefully) woken up.  Here's a link to the research article:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NE … #t=article
And I also recommend searching for "Milwaukee protocol" on youtube.  There are some good videos.