From ABC News · ABC News · · 1m 20s
Chile just ended dog-borne rabies
Fifty years of vaccination vans and door knocks made Chile the first South American country to stop dog-to-human rabies.
In brief
Fifty years of vaccination vans and door knocks made Chile the first South American country to stop dog-to-human rabies. Rabies deaths are a policy choice, not an inevitability: sustained dog vaccination and surveillance can end transmission entirely. Originally reported by ABC News.
A first for South America
The WHO validated Chile as the first country in South America to eliminate dog-transmitted rabies in humans, after more than five decades of prevention and surveillance work.
The last case was 1972
Chile's final reported dog-to-human rabies case happened in 1972. Everything since has been about keeping the number at zero rather than bringing it down.
Why rabies is so deadly
The virus spreads through infected saliva, usually a bite, but also through the eyes, nose or mouth. Once symptoms start it is almost always fatal.
But it is preventable
Vaccination, working surveillance and fast access to post-exposure shots stop rabies before it ever becomes untreatable. The tools have existed for decades.
Door to door, dog by dog
Chile ran mass pet vaccination campaigns, vaccinated exposed people, knocked on doors to reach dogs, managed the street dog population and pushed community education.
“They are the ones on the ground, where education, vaccination, and pet control take place.”
The gap that remains
Human cases from dog bites in the Americas are down more than 98% since 1983. Worldwide, rabies still kills close to 60,000 people a year, most of them bitten by dogs.
“Chile's success offers valuable lessons for countries working to end human deaths caused by this preventable disease.”
The bottom line
Rabies deaths are a policy choice, not an inevitability: sustained dog vaccination and surveillance can end transmission entirely.
