BRAINCAKEEradicating Disease
Eradication means a disease has been removed from the whole world, so there are no more cases anywhere and control measures such as vaccination can stop. This is different from elimination, where a disease is removed from one country or region but still exists elsewhere.
Smallpox is the only human disease to have been eradicated. The World Health Organization ran a global vaccination campaign, the last natural case was in 1977 and smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980. Rinderpest, a disease of cattle, was declared eradicated in 2011.
Smallpox was a good target for several reasons:
• the virus showed very little antigenic variability, so one vaccine worked everywhere and for life
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Key terms in this lesson
- antigenic variability
- The extent to which a pathogen's antigens change over time or between strains, which can allow it to evade immune memory.
More in Response to Infection
- The Cell-Mediated Response
- Cytotoxic T Cells
- Primary and Secondary Immune Response
- Types of Immunity
- Artificial Passive Immunity
- Artificial Active Immunity - Vaccines
- Herd Immunity
- The Pros and Cons of Vaccination
All 20 lessons in Response to Infection · All Edexcel A-level Biology topics