Since 1983, countries in the Region of the Americas have reduced the incidence of rabies by over 95% in humans and 98% in dogs. This success has been achieved mainly through the implementation of effective policies and programmes that focus on regionally coordinated dog vaccination campaigns, raising public awareness, and widespread availability of PEP.
Many countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region have embarked on rabies elimination campaigns in line with the target of regional elimination by 2020. Bangladesh launched an elimination programme in 2010 and, through the management of dog bites, mass dog vaccination, and increased availability of vaccines free of charge, human rabies deaths decreased by 50% between 2010–2013.
Great strides have also been made in the Philippines, South Africa and Tanzania where proof of concept projects, as part of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation project led by WHO, recently showed that a reduction in human rabies cases is possible through a combination of interventions involving mass dog vaccination, improved access to PEP, increased surveillance and raising public awareness.