Mind & body, in brief

WHO, the UN's health agency, confirmed on 4 September that Bhutan had ended human deaths from rabies caught from dogs, the first country in WHO's South-East Asia region to do so. [1]

Ten days later WHO confirmed Chile, the first country in South America. Chile's last human case caught from a dog was in 1972. [2]

Rabies is a virus carried in the spit of an infected animal. Dogs cause up to 99% of human cases, and passing it from person to person has never been confirmed. [3]

After a bite, the virus climbs along the nerves to the spinal cord and the brain. [4] Once symptoms appear, it kills in virtually every case. [3]

The climb usually takes two to three months, and there is no WHO-approved test that finds the virus before symptoms start. [3]

Treatment after a bite stops the virus before it reaches the brain: washing the wound for 15 minutes, a course of vaccine, and antibodies injected into deep wounds. [3]

That treatment saves the person who was bitten. It does nothing to stop the virus passing between dogs. [5]

Vaccinating at least 70 of every 100 dogs in an area is what breaks the chain, researchers in India write. [5][6]

WHO calls mass dog vaccination the best-value way to protect people, and says culling street dogs does not control rabies. [3]

Bhutan has had no human death from dog rabies since June 2023, after years of dog vaccination, dog population control and free treatment after bites in all 20 districts. [1] When COVID lockdowns stopped its yearly dog vaccination, protection among its dogs fell. [5]

In the United States, dogs were most of the animal rabies cases in the 1960s. Today over 90% are in wild animals, and fewer than 10 people die a year. [7]

Only three countries have been validated so far, Bhutan, Chile and Mexico, against WHO's goal of no deaths from dog rabies by 2030. [3]

Why it matters. Watch whether countries in Asia and Africa can vaccinate seven in ten dogs year after year, against WHO's goal of no deaths from dog rabies by 2030. [8][3]

In Hossana, a town in central Ethiopia, three children died of rabies and 80 people went to hospital, the BBC reported in July. [11] Community groups then ordered residents to kill their dogs. [11] A local vet estimated 400 to 450 dogs were killed in a few days, some hanged or beaten. [11] The mayor said about 70% of the town's 10,000 dogs were vaccinated guard dogs, and called the killings illegal. [11] He said police stopped the mass killings within a day. [11]

Why it matters. The order covered vaccinated dogs too, in a town where about seven in ten dogs had been vaccinated. [11] Vaccinated dogs are what break the chain from dog to dog, and WHO says culling does not control rabies. [5][3]

Guinea ran its first nationwide dog vaccination campaign in 2023, vaccinating more than 88,000 animals in 10 high-risk areas. [8] Only the capital, Conakry, came close to the 70% of dogs needed to stop the virus. [8] So Guinea did it again: more than 185,000 animals in 2024 and more than 295,000 in 2025. [8] Its health minister says human rabies deaths fell 47% over the three years. [8]

Why it matters. Only 58% of people bitten in Guinea from 2018 to 2020 got the full course of treatment. [8] Vaccinating dogs prevents the bites in the first place, WHO's report says. [8]

Namibia went from 23 human rabies deaths in 2015 to one case in 2025, after strong vaccination campaigns, WHO reports. [9] Injected vaccines struggle to reach dogs that roam free or are too aggressive to handle, WHO says. [9] So in November Namibia hosted a workshop on oral vaccination, where the vaccine is hidden in food baits that dogs eat. [9] Vets and health officials came from across Africa, including Botswana, Malawi and Zambia. [9]

Why it matters. WHO, WOAH and the UN's food agency recommend baits alongside injections. [9] WHO says the baits still cost a lot, so countries are working out how to fit them into regular campaigns. [9]

India has more animal bites than any other country, and about 36% of the world's rabies deaths by WHO's count, a study of government data says. [19] Reported dog bites fell from 7.57 million in 2018 to 2.18 million in 2022, then rose to 2.76 million in 2023. [19] In two zones of Delhi, 25.5 of every 1,000 people were bitten in a year, three in four of them by street dogs. [20]

Why it matters. India has up to 62 million street dogs, about one for every 23 people, which makes vaccinating seven in ten of them a very large job. [6]

In Shivpuri, a district of Madhya Pradesh in India, 37% of 422 bitten patients waited more than 24 hours to start treatment. [21] Some found the clinic shut for a holiday, some had to work, some did not know they needed treatment, and some could not afford it. [21] At a rural clinic in Gujarat, only 61.7% of the people who needed the vaccine finished the course. [22] Many who stopped said they felt cured. [22]

Why it matters. No test can find the virus before symptoms start, and once they do it is almost always fatal. [3] So feeling well after a bite says nothing about whether the virus is there.

Police in Telangana, a state in southern India, confirmed at least 354 stray dogs killed across three districts between late December and mid-January, and arrested nine people. [12] Villagers linked the killings to local election promises to get rid of stray dogs and monkeys. [12] India's Supreme Court is hearing cases on stray dogs, after ordering Delhi's dogs into shelters and then changing that to vaccinate and release them. [12]

Why it matters. A state minister called the killings illegal and inhumane. [12] The court's changed order moved towards vaccinating dogs rather than removing them, [12] which is the method WHO recommends. [3]

Chongqing, in China, reported 84 human rabies cases from 2016 to 2024, a low rate of 0.03 per 100,000 people a year. [4] Dogs caused 92.4% of them, pet dogs more often than strays. [4] After being bitten, 51.5% of the people who caught rabies got no treatment at all, and only six had any vaccine. [4] Most were aged 45 or over, and most were farmers. [4]

Why it matters. Even where rabies is rare, the deaths come from bites that nobody treated. [4]

A study of Global Burden of Disease data found rabies cases worldwide fell 54% between 1990 and 2021, from 22,035 to 10,181 a year. [23] Ecuador, Mexico and Guatemala cut their rates by more than 99%, through dog vaccination, treatment after bites and shared human and animal surveillance. [23] The highest rates in 2021 were in Nepal, Ethiopia and Malawi. [23]

Why it matters. WHO's own model gives 44,203 rabies deaths for the same year, so the size of the problem depends on who is counting. [3]

In Kyegegwa, a rural district of Uganda, a pilot tried four ways of vaccinating dogs. [10] Vaccinating dogs at human health clinics reached 74.5% of owned dogs; fixed vaccination points reached 29.5%. [10] In Bangladesh, teams vaccinated 9,195 dogs in 12 working days, but over 93% of dogs roamed free and about 30% had no owner. [24] Three ways of counting the dogs gave coverage of 19%, 32% or 47%. [24]

Why it matters. A campaign that cannot count its dogs cannot tell whether it has passed the 70% line. [24]

About 3.09 million people died in the US in 2025, early figures from the CDC, the US public health agency, show. [25] The death rate was 689.2 per 100,000, down 4.6% from 2024 and the lowest on record. [25] Rates fell for every age group and for both men and women. [25] Final figures for 2024 had already put US life expectancy at a record 79 years. [26]

Why it matters. Heart disease, cancer and accidents still caused the most deaths. [25] Flu and pneumonia rose to eighth place, and suicide fell from tenth to eleventh. [25]

The CDC studied 4,861 sudden unexpected infant deaths from 2020 to 2024 in its case registry. [27] At least 73% happened with an unsafe sleep factor present. [27] 75% of the babies were on a surface other than a crib, 78% had soft bedding, and 59% were sharing a sleep surface. [27] About 3,400 babies die this way in the US each year, two in three aged under four months. [27]

Why it matters. US paediatricians recommend a baby sleeps on its back, alone, on a flat firm surface with no soft bedding. [27] The registry covers about two in five of these deaths. [27]

The US rate of sudden unexpected infant deaths was 93.6 per 100,000 births in 2024, CDC figures show. [28] It fell sharply in the 1990s, which the CDC puts down to safe-sleep guidance and campaigns. [27] A CDC report says that progress has since stalled. [27] Of 2024's deaths, 40% were recorded as sudden infant death syndrome, 32% as unknown cause and 28% as suffocation or strangling in bed. [29]

Why it matters. The CDC says death records often lack the detail needed to tell these three causes apart. [27]

The US suicide rate fell from 14.1 to 13.7 deaths per 100,000 people between 2023 and 2024, CDC statisticians reported this month. [30] That was 48,824 deaths, against 49,316 a year earlier. [30] Rates fell for both women and men, but the report finds no clear trend since 2017. [30] The highest rates were in Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota. [30]

Why it matters. The fall covers one year, and the rate is still higher than the 13.0 of 2014. [30] Suicidal thoughts are a matter for a doctor or a crisis line.

From 2014 to 2024, 516,790 people in the US died by suicide, with 2022 the highest year on record, KFF, an independent US health policy research group, found. [31] Since 2022 the total has fallen a little. [31] But suicides with firearms kept rising and hit a new high in 2024, while other methods fell. [31] Firearms were 57% of all suicides in 2024, up from 50% in 2014. [31]

Why it matters. KFF notes that some suicides may be recorded as accidental overdoses, which would change these shares. [31]

Emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts were highest among 12 to 17 year olds from 2021 to 2025, a CDC report found. [32] As a share of all emergency visits, they fell 20.8% for that age group and 7% overall between 2021 and 2025. [32] But they rose among adults aged 26 and over. [32] About 2.9 million people aged 12 and over reported a suicide attempt in 2024. [32]

Why it matters. The CDC says prevention is needed in every age group, especially where attempts are high or rising. [32]

Researchers joined US suicide records from 1900 to 2021 into one dataset. [33] Over 120 years the overall rate trended down, in cycles. [33] But for people under 35 it has risen sharply since the mid-to-late 1950s, and each generation has faced the risk at younger ages. [33] Suicide by hanging has risen since the 1980s in both men and women. [33]

Why it matters. The authors say the crisis among the young began much earlier, and covers more ages, than is usually acknowledged. [33]

On any given day in 2023, about 1 in 38 patients in US hospitals had an infection caught in hospital, down from 1 in 31 in 2015, a CDC survey found. [34] It covered 13,653 patients in 218 hospitals in 10 states. [34] Even so, an estimated 518,000 such infections happened in 2023. [34] Pneumonia, infected surgical wounds and gut infections were the most common. [34]

Why it matters. 61% of these infections were not linked to a medical device or an operation. [34] The CDC and the US agency that runs Medicare track hospitals' infections and make the results public. [34]

In June, as the Democratic Republic of the Congo fought an Ebola outbreak of the Bundibugyo type, WHO issued its first full guidelines for treating all Ebola and Marburg viruses. [35] The 16 recommendations are built on early supportive care: fluids, treating shock and close watching of patients. [35] There is still no licensed vaccine or drug for Marburg, Bundibugyo or Sudan virus disease. [35] Africa has had 72 outbreaks since 1967. [35]

Why it matters. In the worst outbreaks, 25% to 90% of patients have died. [35] For the viruses with no vaccine or drug, early supportive care clearly improves survival, WHO says. [35]

WHO and two bodies for obstetricians and midwives issued new guidelines in October 2025 on bleeding after childbirth, which kills nearly 45,000 women a year. [36] Heavy bleeding has usually meant losing 500 ml of blood. [36] Staff are now told to act at 300 ml if the woman's vital signs are abnormal, and to measure blood loss with calibrated drapes. [36] The guidance draws on the largest study of the problem so far. [36]

Why it matters. Many of these bleeds happen with no warning sign beforehand, so catching them early is the main defence. [36]

In December WHO issued a global guideline on the weight-loss injections liraglutide, semaglutide and tirzepatide for adults with obesity. [37] It makes conditional recommendations, to be used alongside diet, exercise and support. [37] Obesity was linked to 3.7 million deaths in 2024, WHO says. [37] It expects fewer than 10% of the people who could benefit to get the drugs by 2030. [37]

Why it matters. WHO also warns that demand has spread fake and poor-quality copies of these drugs. [37]

WHO issued its first global guideline on infertility in November, with 40 recommendations. [38] About one in six people of reproductive age face infertility at some point, WHO says. [38] In some places one round of IVF costs twice the average household's yearly income. [38] The guideline starts with simple advice and steps up to insemination or IVF. [38]

Why it matters. WHO names untreated sexual infections and smoking as leading causes that can be prevented. [38]

In May WHO made its first recommendation on doxycycline, a common antibiotic, taken after sex to prevent some sexual infections. [39] Evidence shows it cuts the risk of syphilis and chlamydia, and it may cut gonorrhoea in some places. [39] WHO says it should go first to people who have recently had these infections, especially syphilis. [39]

Why it matters. WHO asks countries to watch for the germs becoming resistant to the antibiotic. [39]

Dengue, a virus spread by mosquitoes, has no licensed treatment. [40] More than 14 million cases and 10,000 deaths were reported in 2024, about twice the numbers for 2023. [40] In June WHO published its first list of dengue treatments to develop for children. [40] At the top is a monoclonal antibody, a lab-made immune protein, already being tested in children from age five. [40]

Why it matters. Young children are at higher risk of severe dengue, and WHO wants them studied early rather than after adults. [40]

US poison centres received 3,434 reports about kratom in 2025, a record, against 258 in 2015, a CDC report found. [16] Over 11 years there were 14,449 reports. [16] Most involved men and adults aged 20 to 39, but reports among people aged 40 to 59 rose fastest. [16] Of 233 kratom-linked deaths, 184 involved other substances as well. [16]

Why it matters. Mixing kratom with other drugs led to more hospital stays and more serious outcomes. [16]

Kratom is a tree from South-East Asia whose leaves are eaten fresh or brewed as tea. [41] The leaf holds only traces of 7-OH, a chemical that acts on the same receptor in the brain as opioids, often more strongly than morphine. [41] US shops sell products enriched with 7-OH under the kratom name. [41] In 2025 the FDA recommended controlling some 7-OH products alongside opioids. [42]

Why it matters. Concentrated 7-OH skips the body's own slow conversion, so users get far more of it than a leaf would give. [41] State health departments have reported deaths and severe poisonings. [41]

In May, President Trump said his government was looking very seriously at approving what he called natural 7-OH. [43] STAT, a US health news site, reported that it was not clear what he meant. [43] In June the New York Times reported that Markwayne Mullin, now the US homeland security secretary, had pushed kratom's case inside the Trump administration. [44] He had disclosed an investment of up to $1 million in Botanic Tonics, a kratom company. [44]

Why it matters. The Times says kratom has been linked to liver damage, seizures and thousands of deaths. [44]

Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the US Senate Finance Committee, opened an inquiry into the Trump administration's moves on flavoured vapes and kratom, STAT reported in August. [45] He alleges favours in return for large donations from the tobacco and kratom industries to the campaigns of Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now the US health secretary. [45] He asked Kennedy and the heads of two companies, Reynolds American and the kratom firm Botanic Tonics, to answer by 31 August. [45]

Why it matters. Wyden wrote that both industries will fill petrol stations and corner shops with products that make children and teenagers curious. [45]

An FDA advisory panel narrowly voted to let specialist pharmacies make peptides including BPC-157, TB-500 and KPV. [17] Peptides are short chains of amino acids, and these are sold online for healing and muscle despite little testing in people. [17] Several panel members work for clinics or businesses that sell peptides. [17] The FDA does not have to follow the vote, but often does. [17]

Why it matters. Kennedy calls himself a big fan of peptides and has worked to reverse limits set under the Biden administration. [17] The US Anti-Doping Agency says nobody knows if there is a safe dose of BPC-157. [17]