A second virus eradicated

[Assurbanipal]

In only the second elimination of a disease in history, rinderpest — a virus that used to kill cattle by the millions, leading to famine and death among humans — has been declared wiped off the face of the earth.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/science/16pest.html?hpw

Smallpox 1980
Rinderpest 2010

[Rev. Moon]

Pretty cool.  Thanks for sharing, Assurb.

[Hellraiser]

This is very interesting stuff.  If you want to read a fantastic book about the eradication of smallpox (and the state of the virus today) I would suggest "Demon in the Freezer", which was a very good read.

[Assurbanipal]

Official ceremony is tomorrow!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/health/28rinderpest.html

and it only cost $5 Billion (about 2/3rds the cost of a highway bridge over the Hudson).

[Hellraiser]

Official ceremony is tomorrow!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/health/28rinderpest.html

and it only cost $5 Billion (about 2/3rds the cost of a highway bridge over the Hudson).

After having posted in this a while back I completely forgot about this thread.  The title made me think we had a second Timothy Brown on our hands.

[LM]

I hope I live long enough to see HIV added to this list.

[mecch]

I hope I live long enough to see HIV added to this list.

How old are you?  I doubt HIV will be eradicated from the Earth.  Maybe a cure for those infected.

[dpb]

I hope I live long enough to see HIV added to this list.

I second that.  

How old are you?  I doubt HIV will be eradicated from the Earth.  Maybe a cure for those infected.

What's wrong with having hope?  I believe in being realistic and grounded, but why not dream big?  Why not hope for a better world? 

There are actually two ongoing eradication attempts sanctioned by the World Health Organization:  Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease) and Poliomyelitis.  I know that the Carter Center and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are both heavily investing in those efforts.

This is the type of thing that really makes me want to get involved.

[LM]

I'm 26.

I sure hope for a cure, especially in the next 10, 20 years, like most predict. If not, well, tough luck. If like some say, that I can expect a relatively normal life expectancy, even with HIV, then I should live what, more 40, 50 years? If nothing goes wrong on the way, of course. So I guess I can dream of HIV eradication from the planet in this time frame. 

[buginme2]

And all the cows of the world breathe a sigh of relief.

[mecch]

I am hopeful for a cure.
I don't know enough about epidemiology to understand what would be required to eradicate the virus from the face of the earth.  Apples and oranges.

[Hellraiser]

The best part of this is we offed the virus that decimates cattle....so that we can kill them ourselves.

[spacebarsux]

I hope I live long enough to see HIV added to this list.

I hope so too, but I don't really expect it to happen in my life time. Hope I am wrong.

I am little more optimistic of a complete cure (complete eradication of HIV from my body), but don't really know what to expect in my life time.

I am most optimistic of some sort of 'functional cure', I do sort of expect that to happen in my life time.

I am 28.

[Assurbanipal]

How old are you?  I doubt HIV will be eradicated from the Earth.  Maybe a cure for those infected.

I posted this is because it shows how the world is becoming better organized around eradication efforts, once there is a cure.

Eradication of smallpox has happened, rinderpest as well, and guinea worm and polio are in process  as dpb pointed out.  That international organizations are getting better and better at the logistics of fighting and eradicating disease is a source of long term, measured, steady optimism that we will some day eradicate HIV.

But first we need a cure.

And it has to be the right type of cure -- something that can be administered in the field (like pills). 

But then it will be feasible to start thinking about eradication -- on a long term timetable.  It will take fear (of which there is plenty) hope, activism, organization and dollars (lots of them -- although perhaps less than one might think compared to other values).  But we humans are developing the skills and capabilities to do that.

Sometimes this forum suffers from a certain breathless, blind and perhaps not very well informed optimism.  But blind pessimism is no better.  The ability to target a disease and eradicate it is a uniquely modern artifact of sceince, and one where our capability appears to be accelerating.