Bhutan leads South-East Asia in eliminating rabies as public health problem
Bhutan has been officially validated by the WHO as the first country in South-East Asia to eliminate dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem. The achievement follows a sustained multi-sectoral effort to reach zero human deaths since June 2023.
Why it matters
This serves as a global public health milestone and a model for other nations, particularly India, to follow in controlling endemic diseases.
Bhutan has become the first country in the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region to eliminate dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem. The WHO, on Saturday, validated Bhutan’s achievement. The mountain kingdom’s last rabies death was in June 2023.
Rabies is a viral disease that is almost always fatal if clinical symptoms appear. It is estimated that rabies still claims the lives of approximately 59,000 people each year, with a third of these fatalities occurring in India, where it remains a huge problem with local bodies failing at animal birth control and vaccination programmes.
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