Rabies Vaccine for Humans in NYC — Available Now, No Insurance Needed

Who this page is for

This page covers pre-exposure rabies vaccination for adults 18 and over who are traveling. That is the service we provide.

We do not give the rabies vaccine to children. If your child needs it, ask your pediatrician or a hospital travel clinic. The two-dose schedule described below was formally recommended for people 18 and over, so our age limit follows the evidence rather than being an arbitrary rule.

If an animal has already bitten or scratched you

If you have already started rabies shots somewhere else

Do you actually need the rabies vaccine?

Most travelers do not. The CDC recommends no rabies vaccination at all for the general U.S. population — that is formally the lowest of its five risk categories.

The second one matters as much as the first, and it is the one people miss. The problem abroad is often not rabies itself. It is whether rabies immune globulin exists where you will be. The CDC assesses each country on both counts and publishes the results — worth checking for your specific destination before you decide.

Beyond destination, these raise your risk:

· Long stays rather than short ones

· Rural or remote areas rather than cities

· Cycling, hiking, camping, running, caving

· Working with animals

· Traveling with young children, who are bitten more often and may not report it

Rabies is present on every continent except Antarctica. Worldwide, dogs cause more than 95% of an estimated 70,000 human deaths each year — mostly in Asia and Africa. A two-week resort stay in a city is a very different risk from three months of rural fieldwork.

If you are unsure where your trip falls, that is a reasonable thing to ask a doctor rather than decide from a website.

How many doses of the rabies vaccine do you need?

Pre-exposure vaccination is two doses, given seven days apart.

If you have read that the series is three doses, that is out of date. It is still on a lot of websites, including some large ones. In May 2022, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices replaced the three-dose schedule with two doses. The previous recommendation had stood since 2008.

The committee made the change partly because of cost. It found that the price stopped people getting vaccinated at all, and put the old three-dose series at $1,100 or more.

What the vaccine does — and does not — do

People assume that being vaccinated means being protected. Rabies does not work that way, and the difference matters more than almost anything else on this page.

If an animal bites you after you have been vaccinated, you still need treatment. What changes is that the treatment becomes much simpler.

The immune globulin is the part that causes problems abroad. It is expensive, and in many countries it is simply not available outside major city hospitals. Where clinics cannot get the human version, they sometimes use antibodies taken from horses instead. In some places they use a cruder horse product that has not been purified, which the CDC says causes serious reactions more often, including severe allergic reactions.

The New York City Department of Health puts it plainly: pre-exposure vaccination does not eliminate the need for treatment after an exposure, but it simplifies it, removing the need for immune globulin and reducing the number of doses.

That is what you are buying. Not immunity from rabies. A simpler, faster, safer path to treatment if something happens — in a place where that path might otherwise be hard to find.

When-to-start

Come in at least three weeks before you fly.

The series itself takes a week. The extra time is deliberate margin — for your antibody response to develop, and for the very common situation where something moves and you need to shift an appointment.

In my experience the appointments themselves are rarely the problem; people simply leave it too late and then discover the second dose falls after their departure date.

If your trip is sooner than three weeks, call us anyway. Depending on the dates, there may still be something worth doing.

How much does the rabies vaccine cost?

The rabies vaccine costs $590 per dose at our office, plus a one-time $90 visit fee. The full pre-exposure series is two doses, so the total is $1,270. That price is what you pay us directly.

The office visit covers the consultation and sending any travel prescriptions to your pharmacy. We charge it once per trip — if you come back for another vaccine for the same trip, you pay only for the vaccine.

About insurance.About insurance. We do not accept insurance for travel vaccination. We will give you paperwork to submit to your insurer for possible reimbursement, but only some insurers reimburse, and we cannot tell you whether yours will.

The rabies vaccine is expensive everywhere in the United States, and there is no generic version — both licensed products are brand-name. We publish our price because guessing is worse than knowing, and because most clinics do not.

See our full travel vaccine price list →

Can you get the rabies vaccine for humans at a pharmacy?

Sometimes — but confirm it before you count on it.

Large pharmacy chains do list rabies vaccination as a service. Walgreens states on its own scheduling page that vaccines offered vary by state, age and health condition, and directs people to ask their local pharmacist about availability. That is not the same as having it in the refrigerator when you arrive.

Two other things are worth checking if you go that route. Rabies vaccine is a relatively uncommon stock item compared with flu or shingles vaccine. At least one major chain still shows the old three-dose schedule on its rabies page. That suggests nobody has reviewed their patient information since the 2022 change.

We keep the rabies vaccine in stock, and a physician — not a pharmacist or a physician assistant — evaluates you and gives the injection.

Rabies vaccine side effects

Side effects are common but mild, and they are mostly a sore arm.

In the clinical trial of the two-dose pre-exposure schedule for Imovax — the vaccine we use — adults 18 and over reported:

These rates come from the pre-exposure trial specifically — side effects of the rabies vaccine without exposure, in other words, rather than the higher-dose emergency schedule.

Less commonly: nausea, dizziness, abdominal pain, swollen glands, itching or swelling at the injection site, low fever.

Serious allergic reactions are rare but possible. That is why you wait a short time in the office after your injection. Fainting can happen after any injection — tell us if that has happened to you before.

One myth is worth putting to rest, because it comes up constantly. The old rabies vaccine needed up to thirty painful shots in the stomach. Doctors stopped using it decades ago and it is no longer made. The current vaccine is an injection in the upper arm, no worse than most other vaccines.

How long does the rabies vaccine last?

The two-dose series protects you for at least three years.

What happens after that depends on why you were vaccinated. Most travelers need no routine booster or antibody test after the series. Some people stay at risk long term — veterinarians, wildlife workers, laboratory staff. For them the CDC advises one of two things: a single antibody check (a blood test measuring your protection level) between one and three years later, or one booster dose given between three weeks and three years after the first shot.

The rule of testing your antibody levels every two years no longer applies. The CDC withdrew that recommendation in 2022, including for people who had the older three-dose series.

If you are traveling again years later and are not sure where you stand, bring your vaccination records and we can work it out.

FAQ

This page is general information, not medical advice for your specific trip. Your plan depends on your health and your exact itinerary. See a travel medicine provider before you go.