This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2023)
Eradication is the lowering of an infectious disease's numbers in all those suffering from it in the world's population to zero.[1] It is sometimes confused with elimination of infectious diseases. That is the lowering of an infectious disease's numbers in all those suffering from it in a local population to zero. The only human disease to be eradicated is smallpox. The only animal disease eradicated is rinderpest.[2] Vaccination was vitally important to the eradication of smallpox[3] and rinderpest.[3][4] Vaccination is vitally important to current polio eradication efforts.[3] Vaccination is vitally important to current measles eradication efforts.[3]
The Covid pandemic slowed many eradication efforts.[7]
Eradication requires many resources. For this reason it is hard to decide whether to eradicate a disease or not. When deciding people consider: Does the disease have a secondary host? (A secondary host will still have the disease if the disease is eradicated in humans.) Can we clearly identify who has the disease? Does an accurate diagnostic exist? Is there enough money? Is there enough political support?
It is possible that eradication of human disease is only possible if humans are the only host.[8]
COVID-19
Elimination of COVID-19 is only possible if travel is severely reduced.[source?] Some experts think this disease may have slightly higher eradicability than polio.[9] The same experts think this disease has much lower eradicability than smallpox.[9] They think this because they did mathematics with scientific data.[9] This is not merely their opinion.[9] The World Health Organization is not certain that vaccines alone will be sufficient.[10]
Some experts believe COVID-19 eradication is possible.[12] The evolution of the Omicron variant has made eradication much more difficult.[12] COVID-19's high evolutionary speed makes eradication difficult.[12]
Eradication of malaria is made more difficult by: mosquito resistance to insecticides; political instability in countries with malaria and lack of funding for malaria eradication programmes.[15] Malaria has been eliminated from most of Europe, North America, Australia, North Africa and the Caribbean, and parts of South America, Asia and Southern Africa. Each elimination is a step in the process of eradication.[16] One of the things causing malaria in humans is P. knowlesi.[15] This parasite makes eradication more complicated.[15]knowlesi makes eradication more complicated because knowlesi's transmission is different.[15]knowlesi's transmission is mostly zoonotic.[15] ("Zoonotic" means that in order to eradicate Plasmodium knowlesi we would need to kill all the animals that have it.)[15]
Malaria elimination is made easier or harder [17] by humidity and temperature.[17] One reason for that is the effects of humidity and temperature upon mosquitoes and Wolbachia.[17]
Gene drives are a method of malaria eradication.[18][19] Gene drives are a method of malaria elimination.[18][19] Gantz et al., 2015 created a gene drive for Anopheles stephensi.[18] Hammond et al., 2016.[18]
Malaria has been eliminated in some places.[20] Because the problem is smaller some people are less worried.[20] For this reason funding for malaria eradication has stopped growing.[20] We must understand how to use money appropriately so we can eradicate malaria.[20]
Eradication of avian malaria is also important.[21] This is made difficult by the long term contagiousness of some wild birds.[21] These wild birds include passerines.[21]
The United States of America eliminated malaria in 1951.[22][23] The National Malaria Eradication Program was the idea of Dr. L. L. Williams.[23] In 2003 there were 8 cases of malaria in Florida.[22] These cases were endemically transmitted.[22] This means these infections happened entirely within the same area.[22] Experts determined they didn't come from somewhere else.[22] Endemic transmission is a serious failure of disease elimination.[22] In 2023 endemic transmission occurred in Florida and Texas.[22] These infections were caused by Plasmodium vivax.[22] On August 18, 2023 there was an announcement.[22] It was announced that malaria has returned to Maryland.[22] This infection was caused by Plasmodium falciparum.[22] This announcement shows that Maryland's malaria elimination failed in 2023.[22] It required more than 40 years for this failure to occur.[22] The American Society for Microbiology believes these 3 transmissions are not related.[24] That means they believe these 3 transmissions show 3 different failures.[24]Genetically modified mosquitoes have been released to reeradicate malaria in small areas.[25] Experts believe these mosquitoes will be used to eradicate malaria from the United States of America.[25]
Malaria was eliminated from Sardinia.[26] This elimination is thanks to the eradication of 3 of 4 mosquito species.[26] These 4 species were Sardinia's native mosquito species.[26] These eradications were done with large amounts of DDT.[26] These eradications were done by a programme started in 1944.[26] This was funded by the Italian government and the Rockefeller Foundation.[26]
Malaria eradication is difficult for several reasons.[28] One of those reasons is the difficulty of detecting early infections.[28] The development of technologies to detect hemozoin is making malaria eradication easier.[28] Hemozoin is among the few things that could be detectable early in the infection process.[28]
In 1988 the World Health Assembly pledged to eradicate polio.[31] In 1988 the World Health Assembly pledged to do this by the year 2000.[31] In 1988 the World Health Assembly created[32] the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.[33] Pakistan's programme has a staff of 339,521.[34] To prevent polio from coming back after eradication we must stop using the oral vaccine and begin only using the inactivated vaccine.[35]
Eradication of Dracunculus medinensis from humans is in progress.[6] No vaccine or medicine is available to help eradicate it.[6] For this reason eradication is done entirely by preventive methods.[6] These preventive methods include: Individuals who suspect they are infected voluntarily report themselves to eradication workers or eradication volunteers; filter vectors of D. medinensis out of drinking water; obtain drinking water from water sources which have been improved in ways which keep out D. medinensis; prevent individuals infected with D. medinensis from wading or swimming in drinking-water sources; eradication workers actively look for new cases; eradication workers do case containment when they find an infected individual; eradication vector control; provide water sources which have been improved in ways which keep out D. medinensis.[6] Methods to improve drinking water sources include: protect hand-dug wells from D. medinensis; sink deep-bore wells which are too deep for D. medinensis; improve existing surface drinking-water sources to exclude D. medinensis; make surface water safe by using sand filters to remove D. medinensis.[6] Improve existing surface drinking-water sources means: construct barriers to prevent humans with D. medinensis from entering the water.[6]
In 2022 the world made the best progress ever in eradicating this disease.[38]
Doing away with all Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi is also known as Salmonella Typhi eradication. Policy makers and decision makers must be aware that eradication efforts have failed many times. Experts expect eradication to take decades.[40]
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the eradication of smallpox "stands as the greatest public health triumph in history."[42]
After smallpox eradication there has been cessation of routine smallpox vaccination.[43] This cessation may contribute to the resurgence of Mpox.[43]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Tuberculosis team funds research to eradicate Mycobacterium tuberculosis.[48] The Bacillus of Calmette and Guérin (BCG) vaccine may help to eradicate this pathogen.[49]
Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri
Florida is working to eradicate Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri.[50] The state is attempting to eradicate this invasive disease due to the large economic harm it causes.[50]
Xylella fastidiosa
The EU requires its members to attempt to eradicate Xylella fastidiosa.[51] Experts believe it is probably no longer possible to eradicate Xylella fastidiosa in Apulia.[51]
There are many methods of pathogen eradication. Methods include: harming and/or helping secondary hosts.[53] In this case "helping" means giving secondary hosts more disease resistance.[53] (In this case "secondary hosts" are living things other than humans.[53] Those living things can also have the disease we are eradicating.)[53] These secondary hosts include Aedes spp., Anopheles spp. and white-footed mice.[53]Aedes spp. can carry dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses.[53]Anopheles spp. can carry malaria.[53] White-footed mice can carry the Lyme disease bacterium.[53]
Vector eradication
Methods of disease eradication include vector eradication.[54][55] Vectors to be eradicated very frequently include mosquitoes. In 1944 Sardinia had 4 native mosquito species. In 1944 the Italian government and the Rockefeller Foundation initiated and funded a programme which attempted to eradicate Sardinia's mosquitoes. It succeeded in eradicating 3 of these species. This programme worked by using large amounts of DDT.[26] The results of this programme teach us about what vector eradication does to the environment.[26] Some experts believe this teaches us that vector eradication is not necessarily disastrous.[26] Eradicating Sardinia's mosquitoes has not produced any ecological consequences.[26]
One example is Anopheles gambiae: Some experts want to eradicate Anopheles gambiae. Eradicating Anopheles gambiae will help eradicate malaria. There are environmental risks associated with eradicating Anopheles gambiae. Some experts believe we should ignore those risks and do it anyhow.[54] They believe Anopheles gambiae has too little moral value to care about. One very good method of eradication of Anopheles gambiae is CRISPR gene drive.[54] It is important to eradicate invasions of Anopheles gambiae. Brazil eradicated Anopheles gambiae after the invasion of north eastern Brazil. The invasion was in the 1930s.[56] The eradication was achieved in 1941.[56]
Methods of disease eradication include vector control.[57]
Methods include integrated vector management. ("Integrated vector management" means eradicating diseases by using vector eradication methods. "Vectors" are the things carrying the diseases we are eradicating.)[52] Methods include gene drives. Walker et al., 2018 did a scientific study. Walker et al., 2018 find that mate-finding Allee effects help gene drives to eradicate mosquitoes.[58][59]
Zika control methods include vector eradication.[60]
Secondary host eradication
Eradication of a disease may be accomplished by secondary host eradication.[61] Secondary host eradication means killing all of a less important thing which also carries the same disease.[61]
Omar Akbari does research about this. Akbari does this in cooperation with others. Akbari has a laboratory and a research group. Akbari supervises some other researchers. Akbari researches insect gene drives. Some insect gene drives are Drosophila gene drives. Some insect gene drives are mosquito gene drives. Working on Drosophila gene drives helps everyone to understand all insect gene drives.[26]
Plasmodium oocysts are an important research target for malaria eradication. These are the eggs.[63]
Economics
Whether governments think other governments will pay their fare share is important in eradication efforts. Governments will be less likely to begin eradication if they think other governments will get the benefits of eradication without having to pay for it.[64]
↑
Year: 2022
Rinderpest and its eradication. WILLIAM TAYLOR, E. PAUL J. GIBBS, SANTANU K. BANDYOPADHYAY, PAUL-PIERRE PASTORET & PROTUS ATANG (Editors)
ISBN: 978-92-5-136090-3 978-92-95115-60-6
http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1616097/
Page xii.
↑
Year: 2022
Rinderpest and its eradication. WILLIAM TAYLOR, E. PAUL J. GIBBS, SANTANU K. BANDYOPADHYAY, PAUL-PIERRE PASTORET & PROTUS ATANG (Editors)
ISBN: 978-92-5-136090-3 978-92-95115-60-6
http://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1616097/
Pages xii, ix.
(in English). 2021. doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006810. Commentary: Global eradication of COVID-19 probably feasible, and more so than for polio, say public health experts.
This is for experts.
(in English). 2021. Commentary. Nick Wilson, Osman D Mansoor, Matthew J Boyd orcid.org/0000-0002-1387-5047, Amanda Kvalsvig, Michael G Baker. doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006810. We should not dismiss the possibility of eradicating COVID-19: comparisons with smallpox and polio.
↑January 17, 2023. Viewpoint. . Boghuma K. Titanji and Vincent C. Marconi. Vaxxing to elimination: smallpox vaccines as tools to fight mpox. doi.org/10.1172/JCI167632.
↑2020. Jeffrey D. Stanaway, Phionah L. Atuhebwe, Stephen P. Luby, and John A. Crump. doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa585. Assessing the Feasibility of Typhoid Elimination.
↑Issue 1. 2023. Volume 36. Pages 139–163. doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkac061. ‘A Biological Side Effect’: Yaws Eradication, Syphilis, and Debates over ‘Cross-Immunity’ at the World Health Organization, 1948–1990.
↑ 50.050.12008. Number 1. Volume 91. Pages: 30-34. Letter to the Editor.
.
Tim R. Gottwald,
Gareth Hughes,
James H. Graham,
Xiaoan Sun, and
Tim Riley. doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO.2001.91.1.30. The Citrus Canker Epidemic in Florida: The Scientific Basis of Regulatory Eradication Policy for an Invasive Species.