Chile becomes the first South American country validated for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies

The World Health Organization validated Chile on 14 September 2026 as having eliminated dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem. It is the first country in South America to receive the validation. Chile's last human case of dog-transmitted rabies was in 1972, more than five decades ago.

Validation requires the absence of human deaths from dog-mediated rabies for at least two years, together with demonstrated surveillance, laboratory, animal-vaccination, post-exposure-prophylaxis access and outbreak-response capacity. Chile's dossier was assessed by an independent international expert group convened by PANAFTOSA, the Pan American Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Veterinary Public Health Center of PAHO/WHO.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: "I congratulate the government and people of Chile on this historic achievement... Chile's success offers valuable lessons for countries working to end human deaths from this preventable disease." Dr Jarbas Barbosa, WHO Regional Director for the Americas and Director of the Pan American Health Organization, said: "Chile's achievement is a testament to what sustained regional cooperation can accomplish when countries invest in vaccination, surveillance and access to care." Dr May Chomalí, Chile's Minister of Health, said: "Without communities, without municipalities and without public policy, a certification such as this cannot be achieved."

Human dog-mediated rabies cases in the Americas have fallen by more than 98 per cent since 1983, to a handful each year. Chile's validation feeds PAHO's Disease Elimination Initiative, which targets more than 30 communicable diseases in the Americas by 2030. It is also Chile's second neglected tropical disease elimination: earlier in 2026 the country was verified by WHO for leprosy elimination, the first in the Americas to achieve that.

The announcement came ten days after a companion milestone. On 4 September 2026 WHO validated Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies, the first country in the WHO South-East Asia Region to do so. Bhutan has recorded zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023.

Bhutan's dossier was reviewed by a regional Dossier Review Group convened with the World Organisation for Animal Health, which ran a field mission from 17 to 22 August 2026 including a visit to the Bhutan-India border area. The programme was financed through the Bhutan Health Trust Fund and the Pandemic Fund and delivered with De-suung "Guardians of Peace" volunteers across all 20 Dzongkhags. Dr Nilesh Buddha, Officer-in-Charge of the WHO South-East Asia Region, and Dr Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh, WHO Representative to Bhutan, both gave statements in that announcement.

Rabies is one of 21 neglected tropical diseases, which together affect around one billion people. As of September 2026, WHO reported that 65 countries had eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease, including seven in the Americas. Two other validations fell in the same window: WHO validated El Salvador for trachoma elimination on 13 July 2026, and Timor-Leste on 3 September 2026, making Timor-Leste the 33rd country worldwide and the fourth in South-East Asia, and clearing the entire South-East Asia Region of trachoma as a public health problem.

The global picture remains far from the regional one. Dog-transmitted rabies still kills tens of thousands of people a year, overwhelmingly in Asia and Africa, and up to 99 per cent of human rabies transmissions come from dog bites or scratches. Rabies is effectively 100 per cent fatal once symptoms appear and effectively 100 per cent preventable with timely post-exposure prophylaxis.

Both Chile and Bhutan must now sustain mass dog vaccination, access to post-exposure prophylaxis and integrated human-animal surveillance under the Zero by 30 Global Strategic Plan. That plan is run by WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization with the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, and targets zero human dog-mediated rabies deaths by 2030.