Rabies is a zoonotic disease caused by an RNA virus from the family Rhabdoviridae, genus Lyssavirus. Worldwide distributed, control of rabies has been considered to be particularly amenable to a “One Health” strategy (1). In Chile, rabies was considered endemic in domestic dog population until the late 1960s, when a surveillance program was established, decreasing the number of human cases related to canine variants until the year 1972 (2). Rabies is recognized as a endemic infection in chiropterans of Chile and prompted the surveillance of the agent in this and other species (3).
Objective
This study aims to analyze the evolution of the epidemiological behavior of rabies in Chile during the period 2003 to 2013, through the epidemiological characterization of a number of variables and description of spatial and temporal patterns of animal cases.