The History of Rabies in Peru

Peru is a country with a diverse ecology that helped determine the historical distribution of rabies in the country: canine rabies in coastal urban centers and vampire bat rabies in the Amazon Basin. Although dogs and vampire bats existed in Peru since pre-colonial times, the disease was reported only in 1803. Canine rabies was established as an endemic zoonosis in urban areas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and affected mainly Lima and Arequipa. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, canine rabies was controlled, except in a small area in Puno. However, in 2014, canine rabies was reintroduced in Arequipa, becoming endemic once again. Vampire bat rabies was identified in 1968 in cattle, and human outbreaks were reported in 1975. These continued intensifying in frequency during the first decade of the twenty-first century in the Amazonas Department. A massive rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis in place since 2011 ended human rabies outbreaks. Human rabies from canine or vampire bat rabies are rare now in Peru, while the disease is still endemic in diverse animal reservoirs.