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NEW THIS FRIDAY: THIRTEEN ON DISEASE ERADICATION

Thursday, 20th of June 2013

• THIRTEEN ON DISEASE ERADICATION

ERADICATION, A HARDY PERENNIAL

Since 2007, this service has run 128 items on disease eradication, averaging more than one posting per month. Eradication is a popular topic, and has attracted over 55,000 page views. The dozen items listed in the following table have garnered over 23,000 of those page views. Click on the weblink to access the item. For further discussion, go to the foot of the table.

Article Title and Weblink	No of Hits
1.    FEASIBILITY OF MEASLES ERADICATION, http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=625	2796
2.    CSU 27/2010: POLIO ERADICATION WITHIN FIVE YEARS http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=105	2505
3.    CSU 11/2008: GATES FOUNDATION ON MALARIA ERADICATION  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=238	2403
4.    CHILD SURVIVAL UPDATE 8/2009: THE FINAL PUSH TOWARDS POLIO ERADICATION  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=77	2361
5.    CSU 33/2007: THREE ON ERADICATION  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=239	2209
6.    CSU 42/2009: OBAMA ON POLIO/ HOPKINS ON DRACUNCULIASIS ERADICATION http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=75	2066
7.    MEASLES ERADICATION: NO TO THE SKEPTICS  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=401	1904
8.    CSU 55/2008: DISEASE ERADICATION AND HAPPINESS  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=mod_search&folder=same&file=searchresults&stype=simple	1804
9.    CONTROL, ELIMINATION, ERADICATION http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=396	1734
10.  REVIEW ON AEROSOL MEASLES VACCINES/ FEASIBILITY OF GLOBAL MEASLES ERADICATION http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=253	1658
11.  ACHIEVING POLIO ERADICATION: HEALTH COMMUNICATION IN INDIA AND PAKISTAN  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=499	1258
12.  CSU 77/2010:THE BUMPY ROAD TO POLIO ERADICATION/ CIRCULATING VACCINE DERIVED POLIOVIRUS IN NIGERIA  http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=11	1205
Total	23903

 

GETTING THE WORDS RIGHT

The discussion by Molyneux and colleagues on the distinctions among control, elimination and eradication (item 9), though not the most consulted, is among the most valuable. These distinctions would, if carefully followed, lead to greater clarity in discussions on three quite different words. Thus, for example, polio can be eradicated, as can, for example, measles, rubella, guinea worm, and lymphatic filariasis. Tetanus can be eliminated. Since the pathogen persists in the environment, tetanus cannot be eradicated. TB can, with current technologies and methods, be controlled.

COMMUNICATION, THE CINDERELLA OF DISEASE ERADICATION

Of the articles listed above, only one (item 11) focuses on communications issues in eradication. Perhaps, as noted by the Independent Monitoring Board, the world would be closer to polio eradication but for its “crippling underemphasis on social mobilization and communications” (http://www.polioeradication.org/Portals/0/Document/Aboutus/Governance/IMB/8IMBMeeting/8IMB_ReportSummary_EN.pdf). To what extent does this critique apply to other diseases being targeted for eradication? As mortality from target diseases declines, so does public interest in those diseases. Under such conditions, which already prevail in Europe, the need for proactive approaches to social mobilization becomes more urgent.

OUR SISTER WEBPAGE

Since its launch by Dr. William Mbabazi in January 2013, www.measlesupdates.org has posted several items on measles eradication. Here are the two most popular.

• Global Eradication of Measles: An Epidemiologic and Economic Evaluation, http://www.measlesupdates.org/?content=com_articles&artid=1627
• Measles Elimination in the Americas: Comparison between Countries with a OneDose and TwoDose Routine Vaccination Schedule, http://www.measlesupdates.org/?content=com_articles&artid=1656

ONE FRESH ITEM

Veteran readers will, no doubt, already have read all 12 of the items listed above. Lest their interest cloy, I am adding a new and not previously posted article on the eradication of leprosy. Why does this disease attract so little notice globally? Perhaps because leprosy is so rare in the donor countries, or because India has done so much to reduce it to the status of a minor public health problem (with little external financing).

The new article on leprosy, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, is as follows:

Dogra S, Narang T, Kumar B. Leprosy  evolution of the path to eradication, http://www.ijmr.org.in/text.asp?2013/137/1/15/108268

For an African view on leprosy, from the Pan African Medical Journal, consult http://www.childsurvival.net/?content=com_articles&artid=561

Good reading.

BD