Rinderpest Research Papers

Eradicating disease is a public health ideal that has been passed on for years and still stands today with some success stories behind it for humans and animals alike. Disease eradication is defined as the point where the permanent prevalence of infection of a disease is zero worldwide and intervention steps are not needed resulting from intentional work.There are many things to consider when identifying a disease for eradication. Dowdle states that “if the right tools were available, all infectious diseases would be eradicable” but unfortunately this is not the reality (23).

There are three basic topics of criteria that have to be met for a infectious disease to be eligible to be considered for eradication efforts: biological, economic, and

Symptoms of rinderpest infection were dehydration, diarrhea, fever, and lesions in the mouth accompanied by a 90% fatality which is how the disease got the name “cattle plague” (“Rinderpest Eradicated”). Rinderpest is said to have been around for centuries and is thought to be associated with the founding of the first veterinary school, many famines in multiple countries, and possibly as the first biological agent used against agriculture in Europe. Rinderpest was officially declared eradicated in 2011 after long periods of testing and monitoring to ensure no outbreaks of the disease. According to Dr. DeHaven, eradication of rinderpest has “an economic benefit, but also an animal welfare benefit” (“Rinderpest Eradicated”). Like smallpox, there are stocks of rinderpest still around in laboratories, but unlike smallpox there is unclear information about where it is contained and in how many labs. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has 24 reported countries that contain the virus and it is speculated that there are other stock in laboratories that are possibly not safeguarded sufficiently (“Eliminating the Remains”). In this same case we also see debates on whether or not to destroy these samples of rinderpest throughout the world. An outbreak of rinderpest would prove to be devastating since cattle are not longer vaccinated and so all populations are naive to the disease. The same arguments exist for rinderpest as smallpox, but with a higher emphasis on searching for unnamed vials and control of the laboratories it is contained in (“Eliminating the