Why smallpox was eradicated

Some diseases, such as dracunculiasis guinea worm disease or yaws , have never been widespread geographically. As such, the WHO and other organizations created targeted campaigns that have pushed these diseases to the brink of eradication.

Vaccines have saved countless lives and prevented an untold amount of suffering. The smallpox and rinderpest eradication strategies relied on vaccines and the majority of ongoing disease elimination campaigns include vaccination strategies. These campaigns seem to highlight the necessity of a vaccine and may even suggest that vaccines are critical for eradication.

But is a vaccine truly necessary to push disease transmission to zero? Dracunculiasis is likely to be eradicated in the near future. It is caused by ingestion of Dracunculus medinensis larvae from contaminated water sources. A year after infection, patients experience excruciatingly painful blisters on the feet and legs. Patients seek relief by soaking the blisters in water sources, such as rivers and ponds, triggering the emergence of the adult worm, which releases infectious larvae into the water.

There are no available therapeutics or vaccines for dracunculiasis. How is guinea worm disease close to eradication without a vaccine? This is where creative infectious disease containment strategies come into play. The Carter Center, in collaboration with UNICEF , has distributed water filtration systems and increased efforts to provide potable drinking water to affected communities.

Health workers also prevent patients from entering water sources, instead wrapping the adult nematode around a stick and slowly and methodically pulling it out. Community education and identification of infected individuals has led to the reduction of disease incidence from 3. If dracunculiasis is eradicated, the campaign will be the first to do so without a vaccine, suggesting that there are multiple ways to eradicate a disease that do not rely on having a vaccine.

We cannot forget that eradication of a disease is not solely dependent on the scientific context. Smallpox and rinderpest eradication required political, economic and social education efforts that led to their success. Global coordination and tracking of disease outbreaks requires cooperation on an international level. Without political support, global health campaigns cannot hope to succeed.

Without economic support, crucial resources cannot be mobilized effectively. One of the more concerning developments in recent times is increased mistrust of science, as evidenced by the rise of anti-vaccination sentiment.

Gaining and maintaining public trust in science and in global health initiatives will be the linchpin for eradication campaigns. Smallpox eradication was the prototype for future eradication campaigns and provided valuable lessons, such as the need for political and bureaucratic frameworks to support vaccination efforts and the need to have clear, measurable, universal goals to track progress in any given region.

Sure enough, further tests showed the boy to be immune to smallpox. Unlike malaria, once a person has been infected with smallpox and survived, he or she is immune to all further infections. Six other diseases have been identified as possible candidates for eradication by the Carter Center International Task Force for Disease Eradication : Guinea worm dracunculiasis , poliomyelitis, mumps, rubella, lymphatic filariasis, cysticercosis, and measles.

Scientists and international organizations are working with the Task Force to try and eliminate these diseases. Even though smallpox was officially eradicated, two stockpiles of the variola virus remain in the world. Both the CDC, located in the state of Georgia, and a state laboratory in Russia have supplies of the virus. In , a World Health Organization advisory committee "recommended destroying" the remaining viruses. However since then, the US and Russia have been able to push back deadlines requiring smallpox's destruction.

In a few weeks, though, the World Health Assembly will meet in Geneva to discuss smallpox eradication. Check out my friend Kriti's blog for more about the elimination of remaining smallpox samples. Frequently asked questions and answers on smallpox. WHO The History of Vaccines. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Disease Eradication. Barnes, D. May 2, Barbra Rice via CDC. Sanofi Pasteur via Flickr. May 15, By: Julia Paoli. Aa Aa Aa. The chart below illustrates how deadly the disease once was.

Just the reported number of smallpox cases between and already amounted to We discuss estimates of this discrepancy in the data quality section of our entry.

In the s and 60s the number of reported cases started to decline and by the end of the s there were no cases reported anymore. The WHO search teams continued to search for more smallpox cases but, with the exception of two tragic cases in Birmingham in the United Kingdom due to a laboratory accident in , 2 found none.

Therefore, in the World Health Organization declared smallpox the first — and so far only human — disease to be eradicated globally. Imagine what this means, a disease that was once common across the world and caused millions of deaths and disfigured the faces of even more simply does not exist anymore.

For more detailed information on the characteristics of smallpox, its global history, and the vaccine that ended the disease, visit our entry on Smallpox that we published simultaneously with this blog post.