advanced search

<< Back To Home

- - -CONTROL, ELIMINATION, ERADICATION

Monday, 11th of March 2013

CSU 27/2008: CONTROL, ELIMINATION, ERADICATION
 
 In this nice discussion, Molyneux and colleagues call for consistent usage
 of these related but separate terms.
 
 Control refers to the reduction of a public health problem to a minor
 scale. We can control mumps or pertussis without attempting elimination or
 eradication. Now that onchocerciasis is being cleared from the western
 hemisphere, the term "regional elimination" is coming into play for river
 blindness.
 
 Elimination refers, in current parlance, most often to maternal and
 neonatal tetanus which, because they stay in the environment, can be
 reduced to an incidence under 1 per 1000 livebirths, which is defined as
 elimination.
 
 Eradication refers to smallpox and (soon) polio, in which all transmission
 chains are broken, incidence falls globally to zero, and the etiologic
 agent is confined to WHO approved laboratories.
 
 Good reading.
 
 BD
 
 Trends Parasitol. 2004 Aug;20(8):347-51.
  
 Disease eradication, elimination and control: the need for accurate and
 consistent usage.
 
 Molyneux DH, Hopkins DR, Zagaria N.
 
 Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine,
 
 Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA, UK. fahy@liv.ac.uk
 
 This article seeks to clarify the terminology associated with disease
 control, elimination and eradication programmes. There are several global
 activities under way, which are initiated and guided by resolutions of the
 World Health Assembly. Scrutiny of the feasibility of achieving eradication
  goals by bodies such as the International Task Force for Disease
 Eradication  has identified diseases that could be eradicated. The criteria for this
 attribution as eradicable, the definitions guiding policy, and examples of
 programmes and strategies are provided here. This article pleads for
 scientific, health policy and editorial communities to be more consistent
 in  the use of the terms control, elimination and eradication, and to adhere to
 
 published definitions.