How the World Is Wiping Out Killer Diseases
A nurse administers an injection on the first day of the Ebola vaccine study being conducted at Redemption Hospital, formerly an Ebola holding center, on Feb. 2, 2015 in Monrovia, Liberia. Twelve people were given injections, out of a planned 27,000 people in the Monrovia area. The clinical research study is being conducted jointly by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Liberian Ministry of Health.
Photographer: John Moore/Getty ImagesThe Ebola outbreak in West Africa appears close to its end. Earlier this month, Liberia was declared Ebola-free, and the World Health Organization reported only seven cases in Guinea and two in Sierra Leone in the first week of May. What's received less notice is that the older and more persistent infectious scourges of Guinea worm and polio are also both disappearing—and may soon follow smallpox (eradicated 35 years ago) into the burn bag of history. Other infections, including measles and malaria, may follow.
These eradication efforts represent genuine and largely unheralded breakthroughs, not just for Africa but for the planet as a whole. At the same time, these gains are fragile. If governments misuse disease-fighting tools, deaths from infection could surge again.