Medicine: After the Bite

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Ever since Pasteur made his epochal discovery that inactive virus could give protection against rabies, thousands of bite victims each year have started the course of 14 shots. Many have quit because of severe and painful allergic reactions. Worse, the injections carried the danger of fatal encephalitis or paralysis, because they contained material from rabbit brains. Last week researchers in New York City's Department of Health reported that a modified vaccine made by growing the virus in fertilized duck eggs gives quicker protection, is safer and causes few unpleasant reactions.

Head of the research team reporting in the A.M.A. Journal was Dr. Morris Greenberg. Three days before his report and after 40 years of work on rabies, Dr. Greenberg, 69, died of a heart attack suffered while making an after-dinner speech in praise of a retiring colleague.