Eradication summary

The United States began gaining imperial power at the end of the nineteenth century, with its intervention in Cuba and the Philippines. Although this made the country more powerful, it also created new problems, such as an increase in cases of yellow fever.

Yellow fever was widespread in Cuba, prompting the United States to make its first attempt at eradicating a disease to improve the public health. In 1900, US physicians in Havana found that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes, so the army undertook a campaign to wipe them out.

Have you ever heard of the Rockefeller Foundation? Even if you haven’t, you might have benefited from its work.

The Rockefeller Foundation was founded in 1913 on the belief that diseases were the source of all societal ills such as poverty and crime. Fighting disease was thus seen as a prerequisite for building an advanced society.

The Rockefeller Foundation faced a lot of challenges with eradication but the idea still lived on in the global health community.

After WWII, the newly founded World Health Organization (WHO) carried on the dream of eradication, with the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) serving as its first regional office.

Malaria has long been one of the most widely feared diseases in the world. After observing the high death toll from malaria in WWII, the WHO decided to take measures to eradicate it once and for all.

This proved to be a big challenge. When the war ended, people were filled with optimism for the future and had a deep faith in science. They believed that DDT might be a simple answer to the widespread, deadly malaria problem: DDT could take out the insects and people would be saved.

If you were born after 1977, chances are good you’ve never even heard of smallpox. How come?

Smallpox is the only disease in history to ever have been successfully eradicated. The eradication of smallpox started as early as 1796 when the smallpox vaccine was developed: the first vaccine ever created.

Since the late 1970s, one idea has dominated the concept of global health: primary health care, the belief that everyone should have access to basic medical treatment.

There’s debate as to whether or not eradication should be considered a part of primary health care. Some say it’s inefficient to channel so much effort into certain diseases and it would be better to focus on larger issues, like sanitation or general health care.