Yahoo news: Remote Peruvian natives have a proven Rabies immunity, from being bitten by Vampire Bats over the years. Apparently they get enough virus to confer immunity, without contracting the disease.

Knowing that natural immunity is possible, I wonder if the medical field/industry can build a vaccine similar to the series they give kids when they're young, like MMR, smallpox, etc in order to make them immune to rabies. That would be better than having to go for pre or post exposure shots and boosters.

Not quite as simple as it sounds.
Full report- Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Abbreviated reports- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/249015-Vampire-Bat-Bites-Help-Shield-Peruvians-from-Rabies
http://news.yahoo.com/rare-group-peru-shows-resistance-rabies-212019775.html

Intriguing, but lots more science to be done. Vaccine companies would kill to have a human rabies vaccine, but how do you test it?
HUGE bioethics can of worms there.

Not as horrible as it sounds. You simply take populations where rabies infection rates are high, such as sub-saharan africa, and start immunizing certain towns and villages, and leaving others as controls.

Over a period of time, interview all the victims of rabies and ask where they are from. If they all happen to be from the non-immunized towns, and very few people who received the vaccine come down with rabies, it can be declared a successful trial.

Again...HUMAN BEINGS here...Would you like to know that your uncle was in the control group?

in 1986 i was an E-3 at camp Lejeuine NC. I had a wife and son and it was hard to make ends meet so I sold plasma. I got paid alot more for being in a group who had dead rabies injected, then sold the plasma every couple of weeks. Lots of guys shyed away from it but it didn't bother me, and the side effects were minimal. It made things brighter so I wore sun glasses, I was always thirsty, and a little grouchy. I wonder if its going to wear off anytime soon?

That would cetainly explain a lot about my dear old dad. He was a regular contributor but he didn't get paid. I figure it was one of the few times he got to lie down.

Yes if it turned out the vaccine caused horrible side effects like blindness. Those in the vaccinated group are taking great risk in the hopes of being protected from a grave threat.

I GIVE UP.

May be the Peruvians eat bats, and get so much dead virus from cooking them that it developes an imunity in them. Permanent or do they have to keep eating them?

had my first booster today.... one more to go. Second time being bit/scratched by a bat..... I love this job. and vaccines

LOL,,,bud....... Better get more shots after kissing me...............