What's Next For Disease Eradication?

摘要

IT WAS TIME, ONCE AGAIN, TO BASK IN the glory and share heroic tales. Late in August, approximately 260 scientists and public health leaders met in Rio de Janeiro to commemorate the 30th anniversary of what is often considered one of the major human accomplishments of the 20th century: the eradication of smallpox. Leaders of the global effort-many now in their 70s or 80s-reanalyzed the dramatic 2-decade fight to obliterate a virus that had killed countless millions of people. But many of those present in Rio wished that by now a younger generation of disease fighters would have similar victories under their belt and fresh tales to tell. Thirty years on, smallpox remains the only human disease to have been eradicated. Its demise inspired dreams that many pathogens might be wiped off the planet, and two eradication campaigns were launched in its wake.