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Director of Smallpox Eradication Campaign Dies

posted by martyb on Friday August 26 2016, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the Out,-damned-spot! dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Donald "D.A." Henderson, a physician, educator, and epidemiologist who led the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate smallpox, died at 87 years of age on Aug. 19, 2016.

Smallpox was responsible for an estimated 300–500 million deaths during the 20th century. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year.

After vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011.

Key to the eradication effort, given an insufficient supply of vaccine to inoculate everyone, was "surveillance-containment":

This technique entailed rapid reporting of cases from all health units and prompt vaccination of household members and close contacts of confirmed cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Henderson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

2014 Interview: http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-henderson/ or use YouTube.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Spook brat on Friday August 26 2016, @04:48PM

    by Spook brat (775) on Friday August 26 2016, @04:48PM (#393560) Journal

    There are some intelligence agencies with rules about this kind of thing, kinda like having an institutional conscience. Rules like:
    * never impersonate a doctor/medical specialist
    * never impersonate clergy

    The reason for these rules is that getting caught doing so has easily foreseeable, immediate, long-term negative consequences for the entire global community.

    I dare say that the polio virus and the injuries/paralysis/deaths associated with it are a greater threat to regional stability than any one man. Worse, it's not only the polio virus eradication being harmed: that CIA op harmed the effectiveness of all medical treatment in the region.

    The arrogance with which the CIA attempted this, under the premise of, "well, we just won't get caught, so no problem" is staggering in its naivete. I have to wonder whether their Old Guard of cold-war operatives have all retired, or if this is how they ran their business back then, too...

    Some means cannot be justified, as they have their own ends that will take you places you never want to go. Impersonating doctors in a vaccination campaign is one of them.

    --
    Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]
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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @07:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @07:24PM (#393643)

    There are some intelligence agencies with rules about this kind of thing

    But if you told us which ones, they'd have to kill you?

    • (Score: 2) by Spook brat on Friday August 26 2016, @10:01PM

      by Spook brat (775) on Friday August 26 2016, @10:01PM (#393703) Journal

      There are some intelligence agencies with rules about this kind of thing

      But if you told us which ones, they'd have to kill you?

      Touché!

      I can vouch for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and its subsidiaries in the various branches of the U.S. Military, that's all. YMMV with other U.S. agencies, all bets are off when you jump to other nations. There are a few I'd suspect of similar shenanigans, but I'll be polite and keep idle rumors to myself.

      --
      Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @11:49PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @11:49PM (#393755)

        Thank you for the answer and for being a good sport.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2016, @07:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27 2016, @07:07AM (#393873)

    * never impersonate clergy

    lol