WHO validates Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies

4 September 2026

Bhutan has been validated by the World Health Organization for ending dog-transmitted rabies as a threat to public health. No other country in WHO's South-East Asia Region has reached that mark, and worldwide only Mexico got there earlier. WHO says the country has recorded zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023. A WHO field mission visited Bhutan from 17 to 22 August 2026 to check the claim before the validation was granted. Bhutan offers free post-exposure prophylaxis, known as PEP, in all 20 Dzongkhags, the country's districts. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the WHO Representative to Bhutan, Dr Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh, both welcomed the result. Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms begin, which makes dog vaccination and quick treatment after a bite the only real defence.