ALTHOUGH the complications of rabies vaccine therapy are rare, the physician always keeps them in mind, owing to their danger.
These complications are of two main types: (1) the local reaction,1 which is of no importance, and (2) the systemic reaction, which Grinker2 classifies as myelitic and neuritic. Remlinger3 describes three clinical types of systemic reaction: (1) acute ascending paralysis of the Landry type, with sudden onset, fever, cephalalgia, restlessness, and paralysis, usually fatal in one-third of the cases; (2) dorsolumbar myelitis, with gradual onset, paralysis, and weakness, and (3) neuritic form, with symptoms of peripheral nerve involvement. The last two types terminate in complete recovery in 100% of cases.
The incidence of systemic reaction is low. Remlinger,4 in 1905, reported 40 cases of paralysis after 107,712 treatments, and the same author, in 1927, reported 529 cases among 1,164,264 patients treated. Simon5 gave an average