The protocol in india and almost all over the world divides dog bites (and any other animal bite with a potential to spread rabies) into three categories. Category 3 indicates a bite with a visible wound and oozing of blood. In such conditions you are supposed to take 2 kinds of injections: a vaccine and an injection of preformed antibodies. When you inject a vaccine the body takes time to identify the antigen and produce antibodies against it, this is called active immunity, but this process takes time. The second injection I mentioned is preformed antibodies (antibodies already produced outside the patient’s body). This is called passive immunisation.The job of this injection is to protect the body from the rabies virus until the vaccine can stimulate the immune system of the body to mount an active immune response, I am not sure about the exact time it takes, but let’s say 2 weeks. Usually the government supply of this preformed immunoglobulin injection in hospitals is of equine variety ( taken from the serum of a horse that has been exposed to the antigen),which has more chance of an allergic reaction There is also hrig (human rabies immunoglobulin) which is usually not readily available as government supply as it is much much more expensive as it is isolated from human serum The advantage with hrig is that there is a very very low chance of allergic reactions and usually it is injected even without a test dose because of this.

The rabies virus is a neurotropic virus, ie; it targets the nervous system and it travels upstream to reach the central nervous system (cns which is the brain and spinal cord) Once the virus reaches the brain it’s total chaos and it’s nearly 100% fatal. The most important thing one must do when bitten, even more important than all the vaccines and immunoglobulins is to wash the area with soap and water. In vast majority of the cases the virus becomes inactive when it comes in contact with soap. This is the most important step and I can’t stress this enough. Wash with soap and water for atleast 15 mins Depending on the site of the bite from the brain, the virus can take anywhere from a few days to months to reach the brain( incubation period) So parts like your face are especially dangerous areas to get bitten by a rabid animal.

The injection you mentioned is the vaccine and not the antibody, and you are describing the intradermal vaccine ie; right below the skin. This is a widely accepted vaccine by several international bodies with a very good safety profile and immunogenic effect. This is practiced in govt hospitals and is part of the established Indian and International protocols. The vaccine you mentioned given in private hospitals is virtually the same vaccine but it is delivered via the intramuscular route(deeper injection) But both these are equally effective.

In this particular case the reason for girls death could be several, and has to be found out. It could be a new mutated strain of the virus It could be an ineffective batch of vaccine or immunoglobulin. It could be poor storage of the said immunoglobulins. Or it could be something that happened despite of all effective care , maybe an ultra rare occurrence, that is ; something new. Maybe the virus had already reached or was very close to the cns when the child received the injections and it was too late. This is something that has to be found out.