Ebook: Eradication : Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?

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 zero by means of purposeful public health interventions, has been pursued repeatedly. Campaigns against yellow fever, malaria, smallpox, and polio are among the largest, most costly programmes ever undertaken in international public 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. Read more...