LINK: Guinea worm disease close to eradication
post by polymathwannabe · 2015-01-16T16:08:19.223Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 4 commentsThe disease, that is, maybe not the worm itself. Anyway, Team Human scores its second point against Team Disease:
http://www.sciencealert.com/guys-we-re-really-close-to-eradicating-the-second-disease-ever-from-the-planet
4 comments
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comment by AABoyles · 2015-01-16T18:06:24.165Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
We might not want to draw that tick mark just yet. Our other "Global Eradication Target", Polio, has dropped into the 10^3 range of annual cases several times. The New York Times likened beating those last few cases to "Trying to squeeze Jell-O to death." Not that humanity doesn't deserve a collective pat on the back, but let's not call the job done until the job is done.
Replies from: WalterL↑ comment by WalterL · 2015-01-16T18:28:42.066Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Additionally, adding a second point to the scoreboard in Team Humans Vs Team Disease means looking at that scoreboard, and that's super depressing.
Replies from: polymathwannabe↑ comment by polymathwannabe · 2015-01-16T19:24:13.211Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
As opposed to tens of thousands of years without even kicking the ball, it's something.
comment by Metus · 2015-01-16T21:56:52.311Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Rinderpest was a disease in cattle we have eradicated. We are also making progress on on some more. Let's hope that this does not have any unintended horrible consequences like opening the ecosystem of human parasites to something potentially more deadly.