“When is a disease considered eradicated?”
I understand that when there's no possible way to get the disease, it's considered extinct or eradicated. But what is considered when declaring a disease eradicated? I'm only asking because measles was considered eradicated with the vaccine, but then people contracted it.
1 Answer
Florin Paul
Queens, New York
Your concern is very valid as too often and particularly in the media there are so many false statements regarding diseases, public health, prevention and treatment.At this very particular moment there is only one disease that was ERADICATED, and this is SMALLPOX. Smallpox was a viral disease with very high mortality that was eradicated in 70' after a huge and extremely well coordinated vaccination program all over the world. SMALLPOX was declared ERADICATED after in entire world was not reported any NEW CASE in about 3 years. The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. The disease was declared eradicated in 1980. Since then no human smallpox was reported/diagnosed in the entire world.In my humble opinion there is too much advertising for vaccines and immunization of the population having the goal of eradication of infectious/contagious/transmissible diseases like POLIO, MEASLES, YELLOW FEVER and so on. So far, the goal of eradication failed and most probably never will be reached, at least with the current policies and vaccines. I do hope my answer is clear enough. The topic is extremely vast and I may need to publish a book for touching all the aspects of the eradication process for a disease.
Good luck,
Florin PAUL, MD, PhD, MPH
Good luck,
Florin PAUL, MD, PhD, MPH
