[A historical view of rabies in Chile].

In this review international and national historical features of rabies are presented remarking the start of preventive immunization in Chile, at year 1896, with the creation of the first service for rabies vaccination and la descentralización of preventive treatment from year 1929. Figures of human cases produced by this zoonosis between 1950 and 1986 are described, señalándose changes that occurred in local epidemiology of rabies since 1990, with an endemic pattern in bats and almost disappearance of canine rabies.