Publications by authors named "Hoshang Vakil"

This phase IV, single blind study assessed the immunogenicity and safety of India-manufactured purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine (PCECV), compared with a German-manufactured batch obtained by the same production process. A total of 340 participants enrolled at 2 study sites in India were randomized (1:1:1:1) in 4 groups to receive a 5-dose Essen regimen with either 1 of the 3 Indian batches (PCECV-I) or the German batch (PCECV-G), administered on Days (D) 0, 3, 7, 14 and 30. The lot-to-lot consistency of PCECV-I batches in terms of induced immune response at D14 was demonstrated.

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Article Synopsis
  • This phase 3 study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of the MenACWY-CRM vaccine, aiming for approval in India, involving 180 healthy participants aged 2-75 years.
  • Participants received one dose of the vaccine, and immune responses were measured before and after vaccination; adverse events were also monitored throughout the study period.
  • Results showed a strong immune response in all age groups, with high percentages achieving protective levels against the four serogroups, and the vaccine was reported to be well tolerated with no major safety issues.
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Despite availability of effective rabies vaccines, India has the highest global mortality rate for rabies. Low socio-economic communities are most affected due to lack of awareness of the disease and poor compliance to post-exposure prophylactic regimens. Currently, the only approved intramuscular regimen for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) against rabies in India is the Essen regimen, which consists of 5 injections administered over 5 separate days in a period of one month.

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Compliance with recommended vaccinations for Indian infants is facilitated by using combination vaccines to minimize the number of required injections. The ready-to-use, preservative free, fully-liquid combination DTwP-HepB-Hib vaccine, Quinvaxem(®), offers convenience of administering five important vaccine antigens to infants in a single injection. This phase III, single-arm, multicenter study was designed to assess immunogenicity and safety of three doses of Quinvaxem(®) to Indian infants administered at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age.

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Human rabies, mainly transmitted by dog bites, remains a major public health problem in developing countries. In Asian countries, such as India or the Philippines, where large free-ranging dog populations exist, the human death toll stays high. Children under the age of 15 y are at particular risk, representing up to half of the dog bite victims.

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Although rabies can be effectively prevented by means of preexposure or post-exposure prophylaxis, in India, an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 human rabies deaths occur annually. Tragically, 50% of these victims are children under the age of 15. In addition to immediate post-exposure prophylaxis measures, including active and passive immunization, pre-exposure vaccination using tissue culture vaccines is a safe and effective but highly underutilized method of preventing rabies in humans living or working in areas at risk.

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Intradermal (ID) vaccination with modern cell culture rabies vaccines is a means to significantly reduce the cost of post-exposure prophylaxis as compared to intramuscular vaccination. In this study we evaluated the efficacy, immunogenicity and tolerability of PCECV and PVRV administered ID in doses of 0.1 mL per site according to the 2-site Thai Red Cross (TRC) regimen.

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Background: The current recommendation of the manufacturer for administering purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine (PCECV) is to reconstitute the contents with 1.0 mL of water for injection (WFI). However, it has been debated whether a lower volume of WFI (0.

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