Diet taboos after rabies vaccine

There are no general dietary taboos that must be followed 100% after vaccination. The online taboos of not eating spicy food, not touching seafood, not drinking coffee, tea, and alcohol are not ironclad rules that everyone must strictly implement. Whether and what to avoid depends entirely on your own physical reaction after vaccination and past allergic history.

I'm not just talking nonsense. Last week, I went with my nephew who was scratched by the cat at home to get vaccinated, and I saw two completely different medical orders with my own eyes. My nephew is usually very skinny. After the injection, he stayed under observation for 30 minutes and showed no reaction. The young vaccination doctor just said, "Just go back and eat normally. Don't drink too much and don't catch a cold or have a fever." Then he followed us to eat tomato hotpot in the evening, and even drank two glasses of ice Coke, but nothing happened. There is a little girl in the same clinic who has a sensitive constitution. After the injection, the hard nodules on her arms were almost as big as eggs, and she also had a slight fever. The doctor specifically told her not to touch mangoes, seafood and other things that make her itchy after eating. She should also stop spicy food for a few days to avoid aggravating the redness, swelling and discomfort.

Why is there such a difference? In fact, to put it bluntly, it is a conceptual update brought about by the iteration of vaccine technology. Twenty or thirty years ago, when the domestic rabies vaccine purification technology was not so mature, the rate of adverse reactions after vaccination was indeed high. Eating irritating foods could easily aggravate the symptoms of fever and local redness and swelling. Therefore, the older generation of doctors generally required strict dietary taboos. This requirement was completely fine in the context of that time. However, the rabies vaccines commonly used in China are now purified and inactivated vaccines, and the adverse reaction rate has dropped to less than 3%. Most people only have slight arm soreness after the vaccine. Therefore, the unified dietary taboo items have long been deleted from the latest version of the "Technical Guidelines for Rabies Prevention and Control". Nowadays, we can still hear the saying "you must abstain from food for a month", which is mostly inherited from old experience, and it is not wrong. After all, there is no harm in abstaining from food for a few days. At most, it is just to endure the craving for a few days. There is really no need to argue with the doctor over this matter.

Of course, you are not allowed to let yourself go unbridled right after the injection. There are really two situations where you still have to hold back a little. For example, if you usually eat spicy food, you are prone to gastroenteritis and diarrhea, or you are allergic to foods such as seafood and mangoes, and your immune status fluctuates a bit within a week after receiving the vaccine. If you have to eat spicy skewers or eat sashimi, you will have vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes all over your body. You can't tell whether it is a food problem or an adverse reaction to the vaccine. It will take time to go to the hospital for investigation, which is purely your own fault. Oh, by the way, there is also the issue of drinking. It does not mean that the vaccine will be ineffective after a sip of alcohol. Excessive drinking itself will suppress the immune response. If you drink it to the point of dizziness and vomiting, mixed with the adverse reactions of the vaccine, it will be difficult for doctors to determine where the problem lies. If you really drink too much and fall and break the newly treated wound, it will be more harmful than the gain. Therefore, it is generally recommended to drink as little as possible throughout the vaccination process, especially don’t drink the fragment.

What many people are most worried about is “I accidentally ate spicy food/drank iced coffee, will the vaccine be in vain?” ”, you can rest assured about this. There is currently no research evidence that daily diet will affect the production of antibodies to the rabies vaccine. As long as you do not take immunosuppressants or hormone drugs for a long time, the spicy food, coffee, and milk tea you eat normally will not touch the threshold that affects the antibody titer. There is no need to panic to get the vaccine just because you have eaten some "taboo foods."

When I was doing volunteer consultation at the dog injury clinic, I met too many people who were so anxious that they had insomnia because of dietary taboos. They did not dare to touch meat or eat salt for a week after the injection. Instead, they were so hungry that they felt dizzy and weak. In fact, it is really unnecessary. The most important thing to pay attention to in rabies vaccination has never been the diet, but to wash the wound with soapy water for more than 15 minutes as soon as possible after the injury, and complete the full vaccination on time. The remaining dietary issues are as long as you feel comfortable. If you are really hungry for hot pot and an ice drink, it is not a big deal.