The excitement following the first report of the world eradication of smallpox in the 1980s was tempered by reports of the difficulty of achieving the same for other infectious diseases. Of about 40 vaccines available, only smallpox can claim this much success. It may surprise many that polio, for which major vaccination advances were introduced in the 1950s and 1960s, is still active in 2011, causing paralysis and death in wide swaths of Central Africa and the Indian subcontinent of Asia. Determine if the complete eradication of all infectious diseases from the globe a wise and feasible objective using the following economics and public health concepts:
- Demand for prevention
- Disease prevalence
- Prevalence elasticity of demand for prevention
- Benefit to vaccine
• Costs to vaccine