Smallpox has gone the way of the dodo. Polio is slowly but surely slipping into extinction and Guinea worm disease could conceivably be eradicated. All these diseases share one feature – they all infect only humans. Unlike rabies, there is no other population harboring the disease. Now that every last human has been vaccinated for smallpox, it’s gone forever, baring some sort of terrorism/lab accident.
To the best of my knowledge, there are relatively few diseases that could be eradicated entirely from the human population. I know only of three. But are there others? What are they and could they be wiped out in our lifetimes? I’d love to hear from some Dr. Dopers on this issue.
Polio virus will infect chimpanzees and some other primates, and so a natural though unlikely reservoir exists.
Guinea worm will infect a range of other mammals.
Even without other hosts, the Guinea worm is unlikely to become extinct so long as we have brave volounteers such as these people: http://deadlysins.com/guineaworm/crisis.htm
Wow. The only thing that could top this is a PETA-esque group calling for the reintroduction of smallpox. If someone can dig up a freakshow like that, I will have officially seen everything.
I’ll say this: despite my committment to preservation of the enviroment and protection of endangered species, I will not shed a tear over the extinction of polio and the Guinea worm.
And after every last human has been vaccinated against polio, I say we start next on our primate cousins! Just to cover all bases.
Sadly enough, smallpox has not gone the way of the dodo. This horrific disease organism was kept alive by the humane governments of the US and the (old)USSR. And when the USSR broke up, it is likely that bioweapons scientists from Moscow took some of the little fellows with them to their new jobs, sometimes possibly to rogue nations who still want to use smallpox for biowarfare. Also, sadly enough, everyone has not been vaccinated against this disease, because after the last wild case occurred, the immunisation program also came to an end. If you’re younger than about 30, you probably didn’t get the vaccination. The rest of us who did probably have waning (or waned) immunity.
The US government is finally acknowledging (after denying it as paranoid thinking for many years) this possibility, that countries - potential enemies of the US - have and are growing smallpox cultures.
Now, when public health departments around the oountry should be focusing on natural public health problems that haven’t gone away, they are pouring great amounts of resources into bioterrorism preparedness programs. We’re even seeing the return of the smallpox vaccine, even though there will be deaths and serious side effects from this shot that protects against a theoretical risk. And even though it’s possible that the smallpox being grown for biowarfare may be genetically altered to make it immune to any vaccinations.
Okay, now I’m getting depressed, so I’m going to have a roti.
Jill
JillGat – I’m aware of the possible use of smallpox as an instrument of germ warfare, but I tend to think that if terrorist groups had samples of it, they’d have used it already.
We’ve already had one terrorism-related disease outbreak – anthrax, remember that? Not exactly the scariest disease of all time. Sure, it killed a few people, but it’s not nearly as contagious or deadly as smallpox or Ebola or any other disease that could be used as a biological weapon. If a friggin’ goat disease is the scariest thing terrorists can get their hands on, then I’ll sleep well tonight.
One frightning possibility for germ warfare is a powerful version of influenza. Most people forgot that the flu has and can cause incredible death tolls. In the recent past, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 killed more people in one year than the Black Plague did in four – 25 to 37 million people dead. That wasn’t even a hundred years ago! A genetically modified variant resistant to vaccines and conventional medicines would be an utter nightmare. Easily to get, quick to kill, spreads like wildfire.