Rabies vaccines: WHO position paper

Overview

In accordance with its mandate to provide guidance to Member States on health policy matters, WHO is issuing a series of regularly updated position papers on vaccines and vaccine combinations against diseases that have an international public health impact.

These papers, which are concerned primarily with the use of vaccines in large-scale immunization programmes, summarize essential background information on the respective diseases and vaccines, and conclude with the current WHO position concerning their use in the global context. The papers are reviewed by a number of experts within and outside WHO and, since April 2006, have been reviewed and endorsed by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on vaccines and immunization.

The position papers are designed for use mainly by national public health officials and immunization programme managers. However, they may also be of interest to international funding agencies, the vaccine manufacturing industry, the medical community, scientific media and the public.