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Steve Cochi is a 63-year-old physician and epidemiologist who thinks its time to totally wipe out Measles:
[F]or the past 25 years, Cochi has been pushing one of the boldest—and some might venture foolhardy—ideas in public health. He wants the world to undertake a huge new effort to eradicate measles. Not just tame the virus or control the outbreaks re-surging across the globe, but to obliterate it, wipe it off the face of the earth, as has only been done once for a human pathogen, smallpox, in 1977, and as the world fervently hopes will happen soon with polio.
Measles is the most contagious virus on Earth, infecting virtually everyone who is not vaccinated.
It would cost a lot of money. And a large percentage of people, when presented with the idea think Measles is not worth the cost or the effort, because measles is, in their opinion, only a nuisance. Indeed the CDC has stated that Measles was eliminated in the US in the year 2000. Subsequent outbreaks earlier this year served as a brief wake up call, but nobody died, and people have largely written it off and attributed it to anti-vaxers.
But more than half of the estimated 10 million infected with measles each year in the developing world fare far worse. The virus suppresses the body's defense system, especially in those already immune-compromised or with malnutrition or vitamin A deficiency, leaving them vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections. The problems are compounded by a lack of health care. Pneumonia is the most common cause of death; diarrhea and dehydration is a close second. Measles is one of the top five preventable causes of blindness. Deafness is common. Inflammation of the brain can cause seizures and sometimes permanent brain damage. In poor countries, the fatality rate is 2% to 15%, soaring to 25% in the worst outbreaks.
In 2013, there were 145.700 measles deaths globally – about 400 deaths every day or 16 deaths every hour.
The article appearing on Science Mag's site outlines the problems involved, and the heartbreak of having Polio almost beaten, only to see it linger. It has a full discussion on why it should be doable, and why there are pitfalls.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @11:40AM
[quote]In others, rumors about vaccine dangers and an anti-Muslim plot derailed them. Over the past few years, opposition has taken a horrifying turn, with polio workers being singled out and murdered in Pakistan.[/quote]
Once again, the unintended consequences of America's narrow-minded gung-ho foreign policy has fucked things up for everyone else:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-cia-fake-vaccination-campaign-endangers-us-all/ [scientificamerican.com]
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/02/150227-polio-pakistan-vaccination-taliban-osama-bin-laden/ [nationalgeographic.com]
How many innocent deaths by disease was the assassination of OBL worth?
Yeah bitches, I actually read TFA.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @02:28PM
Yeah, you read TFA and it is clear where you focus that chip on your shoulder. Never mind that OBL was wanted by every fucking western nation, it is just that the US took the lead on it (because europe is completely lacking in moral or strategic leadership on any issue: who had to step up for Kosovo? That was in the EU's own fucking backyard. Where the fuck were they for Rwanda? That could have been their shining moment because the US stayed out of it, but shitheads like you will criticize the US for not doing anything about it (actually shitheads like you didn't give a fuck about Rwanda because why the fuck should you care about those dark skinned people over there?)). Fucktards like you need to grow the fuck up and accept some responsibility for yourselves.
I find it remarkable how you can put "innocent deaths" and OBL together like you did in that sentence like we was some poor victim of circumstance.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @03:09PM
I think that the point he was making was that in our (USA) zeal to apprehend OBL, we used vaccination teams as CIA cover.
News got out that vax teams were spies.
Countries and people stopped welcoming the vax teams.
People stop getting vaccinated, disease spreads, innocents die.
(Score: 3, Touché) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday June 01 2015, @03:14PM
We're not talking about Europe or Rwanda. You're changing the subject.
OBL needed to be found, nobody's denying that. Personally I think capture + trial would have been far better than on-the-spot assassination but hey, it's america, we all know what your version of "justice" looks like.
The question is this: What do you think is acceptable collateral damage for the capture/ murder of OBL? And I'm not talking about people associated with him who happened to be in the blast radius, I'm talking about innocent civilians, hundreds of or thousands of miles away, who had nothing to do with the man or his politics, but died of some horrible disease anyway. How many of those people would you willingly killed for the chance to kill OBL? That's what I want you to do. Put a number on it. Go ahead, I'm waiting.
Once you've answered that question, you can go ahead and tell me exactly what it is that makes you better him and the other 11/9 perpetrators.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @03:22PM
OBL was just a political campaign. After all what did they really achieve? Heck they didn't even do things properly and supposedly dumped his remains into the ocean - how nice for conspiracy theorists (e.g. maybe the real CIA sponsored OBL is still out there).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/9694952/Osama-bin-Laden-US-Navy-emails-reveal-no-sailors-witnessed-secret-burial-at-sea.html [telegraph.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday June 01 2015, @06:44PM
It wasn't a fake vaccination campaign. Real vaccine was dispensed.
The fact that subsequent events have turned up clear indications that Pakistan did in fact know OBL was living there and that they were actively protecting him (probably to gain some leverage) reveals the depth of the double dealing that Pakistan was engaged in.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:27AM
It wasn't a fake vaccination campaign. Real vaccine was dispensed.
*Badum tish*
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:42AM
From one of the above-linked articles:
The misguided vaccine program in Pakistan was started in a poor neighborhood of Abbottabad, no doubt to give it an air of legitimacy. Yet after the first in a standard series of three hepatitis B shots was given, the effort was abandoned so that the team could move to bin Laden's wealthier community. This lapse in protocol proves that the best interests of the recipients were not the guiding principle of the effort—while not coincidently betraying the program for the sham it was.
Note that by abandoning the program before the full course of injections could be given, they didn't actually immunise anyone. They might as well have saved a few bucks and injected those people with saline.