The diseases that just won't go away

摘要

It's almost time to crack open the champagne. Guinea worm, one of humanity's most painful and gruesome parasites, is on track to be eradicated - the first human infection to be wiped out since smallpox in 1980 (see page 39). Rinderpest could be the next disease to go, with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization predicting that this devastating viral infection in cattle could be gone a year from now.