What WHO validated
WHO announced on 14 September that Chile was the first country in South America validated for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies as a public-health problem. The release says Chile’s last reported human case transmitted by dogs was in 1972 and that an independent expert group reviewed the country’s technical dossier.
WHO’s validation criteria include sustained interruption of dog-mediated transmission, surveillance, laboratory capacity, animal vaccination and readiness to respond to reintroduction. The designation concerns dog-transmitted human rabies as a public-health problem; it is not a claim that rabies has disappeared from all animals or that reintroduction is impossible.
This is a dated editorial briefing, not a promise of complete coverage or absolute certainty. The linked source records define the limits of what this article can establish.