To illustrate how diseases differ in treatment, intervention, and problem, this article will focus on global efforts to eradicate polio, dracunculiasis, and malaria. In 2015, the United Nations and the Gates Foundation released a roadmap to end malaria, calling on world leaders to increase funding for public health. Despite these ambitious goals, weak health systems and resistance to drugs and pesticides hinder efforts to diagnose, treat and control the disease. Targeted elimination of malaria by making certain areas malaria-free is more feasible than eliminating malaria, which means eliminating the disease from the world permanently, many experts say.
Infectious diseases that cannot be eradicated can usually be controlled to some extent with antimicrobial chemotherapy, vaccination, or behavior modification. Indeed, there are viral diseases that seem impossible to eradicate due to some characteristics of the causative virus. Viral diseases may be an easier target than bacterial ones, but the many biological properties of viruses make it difficult to eradicate using modern technology and modern thinking. Despite progress made in eradicating or controlling many infectious diseases, humanity remains vulnerable to a wide range of new and resurgent organisms.
Many infectious diseases that once killed or disabled millions have been brought under control through vaccination programs and mass drug treatment programs that have reduced infection rates among vulnerable populations. Infectious disease experts have eradicated smallpox worldwide, spearheaded the eradication of polio, and developed vaccines that dramatically reduce diseases such as hepatitis B and chickenpox. Infectious disease experts are at the forefront of some of the hottest topics in medicine today, from the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance to concerns about properly assessing and responding to the threat of bioterrorism. To date, two infectious diseases have been eradicated, one affecting humans in particular (pox) and the other affecting a wide range of ruminants (rinderpest).
There is also a viral disease, smallpox, which has claimed millions of lives but has now been completely eradicated. To date, only one human disease (smallpox) and one animal disease (bovine parasite) have been eradicated. activity (Figure 1). Since the last smallpox case in 1977, there have been 3 major international conferences on the concept of eradication. 1-3 Several other diseases were considered potential candidates for eradication 4, but only two other diseases have since been targeted for global eradication of smallpox. Introduction The elimination and eradication of human disease has been the subject of numerous conferences, symposia, workshops, planning sessions and public health initiatives for over a century.
Principles of Disease Elimination and Eradication Walter R. Dowdle * The Dahlem workshop discussed a hierarchy of possible public health interventions in the treatment of infectious diseases, which were defined as control, disease eradication, infection eradication, eradication and extinction. A commonly accepted and recently expanded definition of disease eradication is “the permanent reduction to zero of the number of infections worldwide due to a particular agent as a result of deliberate efforts; intervention measures may no longer be required. Definitions Liquidation is defined in various ways. : as the extinction of a pathogen (3), as the elimination of the occurrence of a certain disease, even in the absence of all preventive measures (4), as a control until the transmission of an infection within a certain area is stopped (5), and also as a reduction to zero incidence worldwide as a result of deliberate efforts that eliminate the need for further control measures (1).
The path to eradication involves suspending control, reducing the incidence, prevalence, incidence, or mortality of the disease to a locally acceptable level, followed by elimination, reducing the incidence to zero in a defined geographic area. Disease eradication and eradication programs can be distinguished from current health or disease control programs by the urgency of eradication and eradication programs and the need for focused surveillance, rapid response capacity, high standards of performance, and a dedicated focal point at the national level. While eradication programs require a vertical approach in terms of targeted disease control, clear goals and timelines, they can and should be integrated into existing health systems and involve communities (as with smallpox and rinderpest) rather than using a monolithic approach with a separate group of full-time workers (malaria eradication program 1955-1978).
Koci and Dowdle recall that previous failures of an eradication program have been largely due to the failure of interventions or strategies, cautioning that a full understanding of the natural course and biology of a disease is required as a fundamental rule when considering an eradication or eradication program. Unfortunately, disease eradication can be difficult and even impossible for many infectious diseases, and it is essential to consider the characteristics of each disease in order to adequately conclude that disease eradication is the best approach. To determine whether a disease can be eradicated, take science, the political climate, and economics into account.
Scientific feasibility and political support are the two main determinants of the possibility of eradicating the disease. Changing human behavior, a notoriously difficult task in any context, can be a major obstacle to the introduction of vaccines, which are a central component of many eradication campaigns. Therefore, widely disseminating information about eradication efforts without confirmation of success can be harmful.
A request for eradication logically completes preventive activities, reduces efforts to educate healthcare professionals to recognize and treat an eradicated disease, and interrupts research into the disease and its causes. After smallpox was eradicated, vaccination or quarantine efforts were halted; in addition to saving millions of people from death and disability, more than US$1 billion is saved every year.3 Eradication is often confused with elimination, that is, the absence of transmission of an infection in a given geographic location.2 In essence, in order for global eradication to occur, you must first achieve eradication in countries and regions. Humans have evolved along with microbes, and it would be too simplistic to consider the eradication of microbial diseases to be exclusively beneficial.