Overview
- ATAGI’s 22 December alert advises that any Abhayrab dose administered in India on or after 1 November 2023 should be treated as potentially counterfeit and considered invalid.
- Officials recommend replacement doses with Australian-registered vaccines such as Rabipur or Verorab and blood tests to check rabies antibody levels, with public health units contacting known cases who began PEP in India.
- Indian Immunologicals Limited says a single counterfeit incident tied to batch KA24014 was identified in January 2025, asserts the batch is no longer on shelves, and rejects the Australian guidance as over-cautious.
- Reports have cited detections of falsified vials in major hubs including Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Lucknow, but the full distribution footprint remains unclear.
- Rabies is nearly always fatal once symptoms appear, and WHO estimates 18,000 to 20,000 deaths annually in India, highlighting the stakes if post-exposure vaccination was ineffective.