Eradication of infectious diseases
Elimination of a disease from all hosts
Eradication of infectious diseases
The eradication of infectious diseases is the reduction of the prevalence of an infectious disease in the global host population to zero. Two infectious diseases have successfully been eradicated: smallpox in humans, and rinderpest in ruminants. As of 2026, the Carter Center International Task Force for Disease Eradication has targeted two human diseases for eradication: dracunculiasis (Guinea worm), and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). Other long-running eradication programs that have been attempted are polio, yaws, hookworm, yellow fever, and malaria. The concept of disease eradication is sometimes confused with disease elimination, which is the reduction of an infectious disease's prevalence in a regional population to zero, or the reduction of the global prevalence to a negligible amount. Further confusion arises from the use of the term 'eradication' to refer to the total removal of a given pathogen from an individual (also known as clearance of an infection), particularly in...
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