Global Disease Eradication

One of the best ways to prevent the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance is to simply eradicate a disease.  As you might suspect, it isn't easy to eradicate a disease.  So far, small pox is the only one that has been eliminated from human populations.  It was possible to wipe that one out because it is only transmitted human to human and there are no carriers of it.  If you get it, you know it.  Small pox was eradicated in 1977.  

Polio is close to being eradicated.  The polio eradication effort has been going on for 20 years.  Polio used to be present in 125 countries but is now present in only four, Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Afghanistan. 

Measles may be eradicated some day.  Immunity to measles occurs after two vaccinations and it is really hard to administer both vaccinations to every child throughout the world.  However, the deaths that result from measles have declined by 74% throughout the world since 2001.  That said, 540 children die on average each day from measles.

Syphilis eradication has been considered in some countries.  In 1999, the CDC planned to attempt syphilis eradication in the US.  However large outbreaks of syphilis among homosexual men have hampered those efforts.  

One of the most important tools for vaccine eradication efforts is a jet injector.  This is a needle free injection device that can be used to inject thousands of people per day.  It use a sharp burst of air.  The first one that was implemented during the smallpox eradication effort became useless with the widespread occurrence of HIV because there was a little cross-contamination of blood between patients.  A barely visible amount of blood would splash back against the injector and get into the next patient.  Clearly a bad idea with HIV around.  However jet injectors have been redesigned and are safe to use again. 

I occasionally consider buying a handgun as I have twice experienced the terror of frightening individuals trying to get into my house while I was there. However, I find that I am much more enamored with a jet injector than a Glock, although I can't imagine the threat of vaccinating someone being very effective in those instances.