Not sure how I managed to miss this last week, but rinderpest—a deadly disease in cattle—has become the second disease, after smallpox, to be completely eradicated by human intervention. Last December, I wrote that researchers were waiting to see whether they'd succeeded in their quest to eliminate this cattle-ravaging and famine-causing virus. Ten months later, success has been declared. This is a big deal, and not just because of the actual elimination of rinderpest. Over at Wired blogs, Scary Disease Girl Maryn McKenna explains why it's so hard to eradicate a disease, and what rinderpest means for the future of world health.
Rinderpest becomes second disease wiped out by people
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