Reprinted with permission from Foundation Blog, The Official Blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
By: Walt Orenstein
I will never forget March 16, 1975. It had been almost four months since I began working in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh (UP), to try to eradicate smallpox.
On that morning, I was contacted about a new case of smallpox. I reached the patient about 1 ½ hours after she died from an unusual complication, late hemorrhagic smallpox. Her name was Shanti, a 7 month old child, the daughter of Pyari Lal. She was probably infected by her sibling. Her death was totally preventable, but fortunately she turned out to be the last case of smallpox in UP.
We finally broke the human chains of transmission of that terrible virus. That experience in India taught me how serious vaccine preventable diseases could be and how powerful vaccines are in preventing these types of tragedies.
Walter A. Orenstein, M.D doing community outreach in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India during the successful 1975 smallpox eradication campaign. Photo Credit: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The eradication of smallpox showed that effective vaccines can lead to the ultimate goal: the permanent end of a serious affliction of humankind. Smallpox eradication is our generation’s gift to all future generations.
Polio is the next vaccine-preventable disease targeted for eradication. This terrible disease causes severe, life- long, crippling illness.
As a child, growing up in the United States during the 1950s before polio vaccines were available, I remember the fear and panic that spread through the community at the height of the summer-fall epidemics.
With effective polio vaccines, we eliminated the disease in all of North and South America. Europe and major sections of East Asia have also been certified as polio free. Now, we have the opportunity to finish the job.
Many of the lessons learned from smallpox eradication have been applied to today’s polio efforts. Using a strategy tailored to the specific vaccine coupled with finding and investigating each individual case are critical for success. They also help to measure progress, inform adjusting tactics and identifying the need for continued research to develop new tools to achieve eradication.
The world is very close to being polio free–there has been a 99 percent reduction in cases, compared to when the eradication effort started. We have reduced the number of countries in which polio is endemic from 125 to 4.
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Editor’s Note: The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases is a major initiative of The Sabin Vaccine Institute. The Sabin Vaccine Institute is proud to convene, along with Fundação Oswaldo Cruz and the Fogarty International Center, a symposium to commemorate the 30th anniversary of smallpox eradication. “Smallpox Eradication after 30 years: Lessons, Legacies and Innovations” will be held August 24-27, 2010 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Watch a live stream of the SEC 2010 smallpox symposium here. The feed will be available from 5 PM EST August 24, 2010 through 12:30 PM EST August 27, 2010. Please check the agenda for more information.
