Two ministries and free treatment in every district carry Bhutan's rabies control work

Background

Bhutan's validation by the World Health Organization for ending dog-transmitted human rabies rests on a system built over more than a decade, and that system is the lasting lesson. The work was led by the Ministry of Health along with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, both under the Royal Government of Bhutan. Dog vaccination and dog population management were carried out through the Nationwide Accelerated Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Programme. Bhutan keeps free post-exposure prophylaxis available to everyone in all 20 Dzongkhags, which are the country's districts. The method is called One Health, which treats human health, animal health and the environment as a single problem instead of three separate ones. An Inter-Ministerial Committee on One Health ties the departments together. WHO credits the result to Bhutan's long investment in the One Health approach and in universal health coverage.