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The WHO on 4 September 2026 validated Bhutan's elimination of dog-transmitted human rabies as a public health problem — the first country in the WHO South-East Asia Region to be so validated.
Bhutan has recorded no human death from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023, meeting the WHO criterion of at least two years with zero deaths plus the capacity to stop the disease returning.
The result came from a One Health strategy: mass dog vaccination, dog population management, integrated human-animal surveillance, free post-exposure prophylaxis in all 20 districts, and community participation.
A regional Dossier Review Group supported by WOAH examined the evidence, followed by an expert field mission from 17 to 22 August 2026.
India, where dogs cause about 96% of rabies deaths and which accounts for roughly a third of the estimated 59,000 rabies deaths worldwide each year, targets zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030.
United Nations specialised agency for international public health, established in 1948; it validates country claims of disease elimination. Its South-East Asia Regional Office, one of six regional offices, covers 11 member states including India and Bhutan, and was headed at the time by Officer-in-Charge Dr Nilesh Buddha
The intergovernmental body for animal health, founded in 1924 as the Office International des Epizooties; it supported the Dossier Review Group that assessed Bhutan's evidence
The Indian institution under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that runs the National Rabies Control Programme and conceptualised the national action plan for rabies elimination
Achieve zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies in India by 2030
Key: Released on World Rabies Day, 28 September 2021, jointly by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and built on the One Health approach.
Reduce human rabies deaths in India through surveillance, awareness, assured post-exposure prophylaxis and inter-sectoral coordination
Key: Implemented through the NCDC under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with a human health component and an animal health component.
End human deaths from dog-mediated rabies worldwide by 2030
Key: The global strategic plan of WHO, WOAH, FAO and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, resting on mass dog vaccination and assured access to post-exposure prophylaxis.
GS Paper 2 > Issues relating to health; important international institutions. GS Paper 3 > Science and technology: diseases and their management
General Awareness > Current affairs, international organisations and health programmes
Which indian political leader addressed a special session in 2025 on "Environment, COP-30, and Global Health"?
Answer: Narendra Modi
An approach that treats human health, animal health and the shared environment as one system, so that a zoonotic disease is attacked at its animal source rather than only in human patients.
Wound washing, rabies vaccine and, where indicated, rabies immunoglobulin given after a suspected exposure. Given in time it prevents rabies, which is otherwise almost invariably fatal once symptoms begin.
A WHO status meaning a disease's burden has been cut below a defined threshold and the country can keep it there. It is weaker than eradication, which means the permanent worldwide disappearance of the pathogen.