They still use infestations in some medical areas, at least in veterinary medicine. But the difference is not micro vs macroscopic… it’s if the organism invades the interior or not.
For example, fleas, ticks, lice, and many skin mites are considered infestations. Roundworms, hookworms, other intestinal parasites, and yes, guinea worms… they get inside the animal. So that is an infection.
Come to think of it, I wonder if it is also the difference between the different types of immune reactions. With infections, there can be a response against the organism itself, as at least parts of it can come in contact with the immune system, while with infestations the host is usually indirectly in contact with it. The allergies or reactions are to products of the organisms, not the organisms themselves.
Any immune reaction will be to part of the organism. Any reaction to worms will be due to a reaction to the cuticle or the saliva or similar. You don’t just get a reaction to “worm”.
While I agree that fundamentalist religious groups are often a problem with regards to vaccination programs, let’s not forget that the United States set up a phony vaccination program in Pakistan as part of its counter-terrorist operations. That accounts for at least some of the resistance in Pakistan, and perhaps other Muslim nations.
My understanding is that eradication is only really feasible in certain very specific cases. Crucially, a disease must be human-specific. For example, we will probably never eradicate rabies because even if no human has rabies, there will be plenty of other animals that do: we can’t vaccinate everything.
Thanks for the replies so far, guinea worm was on the tip of my tongue (not literally, ew) as another potential disease to be eradicated along with smallpox.
Say what? Rindepest, eradicated by 2011, certainly wasn’t.
I should have said “species specific”. It’s found in a fairly limited number of large-animal species, and once no animals were currently infected, it was gone. And in any case, I don’t think you can compare non-human diseases. Having “mass culling” on the table really changes management strategies.
Along the same lines, Mad Cow Disease could probably be eliminated with the same techniques, but you can’t do that with human diseases (at lease, not without ending up in front of a war crimes tribunal).
ETA: Both polio and Guinea Worm Disease are the subject of active efforts to eradicate them.
A few other diseases, like measels and whooping cough, could be wiped out with a worldwide vaccination program, but they’re a lower priority.
Malaria is probably not feasible any time in the forseeable future. We’d need to wipe out the world’s mosquito population.
Don’t forget that CIA probably made this impossible by posing as vaccinators in tracking down bin Laden. I was astonished to read that any Muslim who wishes to made the Hajj must have a polio vaccination first.
I doubt that any human diseases are about to be wiped out owing to the prevalence of anti-vaxxers. They are leading a resurgence of measles and whooping cough.