The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Group on rabies vaccines and rabies immunoglobulins1 met at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland on 20–22 June 2017 to consider new published and unpublished data (both public and confidential), address the cost–effectiveness, safety and efficacy of pre-exposure and post-exposure regimens, and identify research priorities that have the potential to catalyze rabies prevention, control and elimination.
The Working Group discussed the need to develop technically sound and programmatically feasible recommendations for consideration by SAGE in October 2017, with the aim of reaching the best possible public health outcomes based on the available evidence for rabies prevention and elimination in order to achieve the global target of zero human rabies deaths by 2030.
The disciplinary and geographical diversity of the Working Group members combines expertise in epidemiology, immunology, health economics, immunization, veterinary public health and clinical case management of rabies. The Working Group was established in July 2016 and convenes monthly to review the scientific evidence, relevant programmatic considerations and best vaccine regimens and to evaluate the potential impact of new biologicals in order to develop draft recommendations.
As rabies affects those in marginalized and low-resource settings, the Working Group emphasized policy-directed research that considers not only clinical efficacy but also feasibility in rabies-endemic regions.
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1 https://www.who.int/groups/strategic-advisory-group-of-experts-on-immunization/working-groups/rabies-(july-2016---april-2018)