Health Programs

International Task Force for Disease Eradication Overview

Who are the members of the task force?

What determines whether a disease can be eradicated?

What is the difference between eradication and control?

How is the Carter Center involved?

International Task Force for Disease Eradication - Sanctioned by The World Health Organization

Eradication and Elimination Programs Currently
Sanctioned by The World Health Organization

Eradication

• Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease): 1988 AFRO, 1991 WHA44.5, 2004 WHA 57.9. Target: 1995; revised to 2009
• Poliomyelitis: 1988 WHA41.28. Target: 2000; 2006 WHA59.1.; 2008 WHA61.1

Elimination

• Neonatal tetanus: Original target: 1995.1989 WHA42.32 (environmental)
• Leprosy: 1991 WHA44.9. Target: reduce cases to <1 per 10,000 population by 2000 (quantitative)
• Onchocerciasis (West Africa OCP): 1973 Agreement. Target: eliminate onchocerciasis "as a public health problem" in OCP area by 2002 (qualitative)
• Onchocerciasis (Americas): 1991 PAHO:XIV. Target: eliminate "as a public health problem in the Americas" (morbidity) by 2007 (qualitative geographic)
• Trachoma: 1998 WHA51.11. Target: "global elimination of blinding trachoma" (informally: by 2020; "GET 2020") (symptomatic)
• Lymphatic filariasis: 1997 WHA50.29. Target: eliminate globally "as a public health problem" (informally: by 2020) [cites International Task Force for Disease Eradication]

Note:
WHO Press Release in March 1997 reports that leprosy, river blindness (onchocerciasis), Chagas' disease, and lymphatic filariasis "can be eliminated as public health problems within ten years"; cites a new report by the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.

Article in The New York Times, dated May 6, 2001 ("Ten Diseases on the Way Out"), names polio, Guinea worm, measles, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, blinding trachoma, leprosy, hepatitis B, maternal/neonatal tetanus, and iodine deficiency disorders.

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