6 Weeks Pregnant, Bit By Bat, Rabies Vaccine

I am a father to be, I remember when I heard about the pregnancy, the feeling that went through my body was unreal. But now, it has tapered to complete worry because of what the title explains above. I have read the research, or lack thereof. I wanted to reach out to this forum as it's helped me in the past on personal issues. I know my wife will be fine, we don't know if she actually had rabies. My concern is the fetus now. At 6 weeks it's developing vital organs, brain, nervous system etc. My wife received Rabies Immune Globulin once and then is to receive 5 additional doses of Novartis RabAvert (a killed rabies vaccine made of chick embryo). She is about to receive the 3rd dose. I know there is not much research on its effect on the human fetus, but what is your initial theoretical conclusion. Is this something to worry about, will my baby be disabled? All in all, is this medication going to hurt my child.  

The additional question I had was...are there tests during pregnancy to evaluate baby for downs, blindness, deaf, brain damage or any other bad thing that may happen due to the vaccine.

This is supposed to be such an exciting time, my wife and I are so upset that this cloud is now hovering. Thank you

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi! I
In medicine it is all about the risk/benefit ratio, and certainly the vaccine and immune globulin are far preferable to rabies!  I am sorry for both of you that this has clouded your initial thrill.  Immune globulins of various kinds are frequently adminstered during pregnancy.  They are antibodies to the virus of concern.  More often than rabies, we are concerned about hepatitis, and this immune globulin is quite frequently given in pregnancy and early infancy.Having said that, I think if you were my patient, I would extrapolate that to the rabies IgG.
Also, while it is preferable not to administer vaccines during pregnancy, we do typically give flu vaccines, hepatitis, etc.  A killed virus vaccine should pose no threat to mother or baby--since the viruses are dead, no risk of contracting the disease.  The vaccine should elicit an immune response in the mother--which is definitely desirable.
Once again I am going to raise the issue of the risk/benefit ratio  -- and I certainly feel that the risk of rabies and the potential benefits of the vaccine vs the potential theoretical risk to the baby from the vaccine certainly justifies the use of the vaccine.
The only problem that could arise is if your wife is allergic to eggs, but I suppose that is another bridge to cross.
Good luck and Congratulations!
Dr B

[Lewistonballer]

Hi Doctor Brown,

Thanks for your response. If you had to guess, would you say that our baby should be 100% healthy, as we'd hope it to be without medications? Thanks Dr. for your help.

Regards

[Lewistonballer]

Doctor,

I was also wondering if you had an answer for my question about tests.

Thank you

[All_boys]

Yes the doctors will do an amniosentices (needle in the belly) to check for down syndrome and any other unlikely illnesses. Good luck.