(CDC Personal Visit, 2016)
"First was the realization by health administrators in many countries that major improvements in the health status of its people could be affected even with small budgets and a paucity of well-trained health staff if goals were clear and steps were taken to involve local residents in the program. Many weak, poorly managed primary healthcare programs benefited from the smallpox program, focusing, as it did, on greatly neglected vaccination initiatives."
(Henderson, 2013)
(Henderson, 2013)
Foege's Life, Fighting Disease"Thousands of people participated in the global smallpox eradication effort in the 1960s and 1970s, and each one has a story to tell. Their stories might vary, yet the people involved shared common attributes. They were optimists; they actually thought they could change the future--and they did. They were risk takers; there was no shortage of people telling them that the effort was futile and they were hurting their career chances--this proved untrue. They were problem solvers; they had little idea of what they were facing, and they took on the problems in order and in stride. Working under sometimes grueling conditions in hot and humid village regions worldwide, with few amenities, these field-workers gathered periodically for meetings where humor and the shared sense of being part of something important carried the day" (Foege, 2011).
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The Global Impact of EradicationDr. Foege's ring vaccination impacted the world by making smallpox eradication possible. He also inspired doctors, because many new eradication programs for Guinea worm, measles, and polio, as well other diseases, were created.
"Smallpox eradication was a catalytic force in the now rapidly expanding range of community-based initiatives in infectious disease control and prevention throughout the developing world. A little recognized but critical factor in catalyzing such changes has been the participation of innovative and dedicated young professionals, both nationals and internationals. They questioned traditional boundaries perceived as limiting what could and could not be done. They had the courage to take on apparently insoluble problems and smothering, entrenched bureaucracies; they willingly worked long weeks without a break, enduring rigorous living conditions. They worked with a global vision. With research now defining bold, unimagined horizons, new generations of public health staff inherit a world of extraordinary challenge and opportunity " (Henderson, 2009). |
Guinea Worm Disease |
Measles |
Polio |
"In 1986, the disease afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people a year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, thanks to the work of The Carter Center and its partners — including the countries themselves — the incidence of Guinea worm has been reduced by more than 99.99 percent to 25 cases in 2016" (Carter Center, 2017).
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"With support from the Measles & Rubella Initiative and commitment from governments around the world, global measles deaths worldwide were reduced by 79% between 2000 and 2014, from an estimated 562,000 to 114,900" (American Red Cross, 2017).
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"Launched in 1988 after the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with its partners, has helped countries to make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease. As a result, global incidence of polio has decreased by 99% since GPEI’s foundation and an estimated 10 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralyzed by the disease"
(“Our Mission – GPEI,” 2016). |
"Over the years, on every return to India, I have searched the faces of people on the street, looking for pockmarks (smallpox scars). Soon I could find no pockmarked face under the age of ten, then twenty, and now, no pockmarks are to be found on people under the age of thirty-five."
(Dr. William Foege, 2011)
(Dr. William Foege, 2011)