Eradication

The dream of a world completely free of disease may seem utopian. Yet eradication, used in its modern sense to mean the reduction of a disease to zeroby means of purposeful public health interventions, has been pursued repeatedly. Campaigns against yellow fever, malaria, smallpox and polio areamong the largest, most costly programmes ever undertaken in internationalpublic health. Only one so far has been successful - against smallpox in 1980, though eradication campaigns against polio...
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The dream of a world completely free of disease may seem utopian. Yet eradication, used in its modern sense to mean the reduction of a disease to zeroby means of purposeful public health interventions, has been pursued repeatedly. Campaigns against yellow fever, malaria, smallpox and polio areamong the largest, most costly programmes ever undertaken in internationalpublic health. Only one so far has been successful - against smallpox in 1980, though eradication campaigns against polio and Guinea Worm Disease are ongoing. Are such programmes, then, worthwhile? Does setting an absolute goal help focus efforts in the health field; or does such a project lead almost inevitably to disappointment? This book surveys the history of eradication, covering all the major eradication campaigns and bringing the story up to date.