6 ms·

Guinea Worm Is Set to Be the Second Disease We’ve Ever Managed to Eradicate

74 points by dineshp2 11y ago

jamessb 11y ago
As written, the title is wrong, though the article does contain the correct statement that "Guinea worm disease is on the brink of becoming the second ever human disease to be completely eradicated through human endeavour". Rinderpest, a viral disease of cattle, has also been eradicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eradication_of_infectious_diseases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eradication_of_infectious_dise...
- stock_toaster 11y ago
  Smallpox, the other eradicated diseases, is apparently[1] still kept in storage by some countries -- while populations have ceased inoculation due to eradication in the wild. Frightening. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_contr...
- cstross 11y ago
  ISTR that when the last wild California Condors were taken in for captive breeding (the species was down to single-digit numbers) the conservationists, naturally intending to give their new charges the best care available, gave them an insecticide bath ... ... Not realizing that mites and lice are extremely fussy about their host species and frequently can't live on another organism. As a result of which, the conservation process inadvertently rendered two species extinct. (Moral of story: we tend to pay attention to charismatic megafauna and to horrible zoonoses that kill us, but in doing so our actions can have unforeseen side-effects. I don't think anyone's going to mourn the passing of the guinea worm but it has a life cycle that includes stages in non-human host species, and I don't think we're paying nearly enough attention to the implications. Oh, and the same goes for malaria, zika, and so on.)
  - taion 11y ago
    That's really fascinating – I looked up the reference, and your recollection is on point. C. californici was in fact driven extinct, possibly due to fumigation of the last few condors. Better to call this the nth intentional pest elimination, then.
  - dredmorbius 11y ago
    It'd be really interesting to see how long before that niche is re-filled.
  - devishard 11y ago
    I do think that there is good reason to make these decisions intentionally i.e. don't drive species extinct by accident. But I'm not sure that an intentional thought process should lead to different conclusions. It depends on what the goals of conservation are. Humans have, by our presence, drastically altered a variety of ecosystems in ways that can't be undone. In the case of the Condor parasites, it's unclear, but it's possible that if the mites and lice had been left alive that would have been the difference that drove the condors extinct. A non-intervention approach might have extincted all three species. A more extreme example: in the Galapagos, human-introduced flies have been killing the finches that inspired Darwin. A non-intervention approach is arguably the most natural, but this would likely cause the finches to go extinct. Intervening to kill the flies might save the finches, but it also involves ecosystem changes to kill the flies and interaction with the finches that demonstrably has already modified their behaviors. Ultimately, returning the finches to their original state is not an option, so any course conservation takes will result in an ecosystem that differs from what Darwin observed. Given we can't undo the changes we've already made, it makes sense to make these kinds of choices based on human factors. It makes sense to choose majestic condors over lice and mites, historically valuable finches survival over their unmodified behavior, human health over guinea worms, and human health over malaria and the mosquito populations that carry it. Extinction of mosquitoes in particular has far-reaching ecological effects which we should strive to understand and mitigate, but I doubt that any of those effects will be more compelling to me than the suffering caused by malaria. A pragmatic view of conservation realizes that change is inevitable, and the best we can do is push that change in positive directions, and further, that "positive" is subjective.
ghshephard 11y ago
I often wonder if there is any argument to be made that completely eradicating the Guinea Worm, Anopheles mosquitoes, Variola major and Variola minor (SmallPox Virus) is not a 100% good objective. My perspective (as well, I'm guessing, approximately 100% of humanity's, to quite a few significant digits), is that any significantly lower being that hurts humanity, or presents a threat, has no right to exist, and therefore we'll terminate its entire existence. But, you can see, taken to its logical conclusion, that thought pattern could lead to less than desirable ethical behaviors. Perhaps we draw the ethical line at the vertebrates. And maybe Octopuses.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- madaxe_again 11y ago
  It may not be 100% good, as there is the broader question of unintended consequences, but unlike us carelessly eradicating species, this is 99.99% "good". It's something that humanity seems to have little issue with - we have been extinguishing species for as long as we've been about, including other sapient species, so in the grand scheme of things a worm is a trifling thing. You are however right about the logical conclusion - we will swarm, consume and eradicate until nothing remains, going by our past and ongoing actions.
- rimantas 11y ago
  I draw the line at "my species come first". So if someone cares more about other species than about humans that's unethical to me.
  - ghshephard 11y ago
    I read some interesting articles about Cecil/Lions in South Africa. While, in the west, there is a lot of support for Lions as "Majestic Creatures" - there are a lot of people, particularly those who live in the same habitat as the Lions, that are not such big fans, and are more than happy to see them wiped out to the point where they only exist on Wildlife Reserves/zoos. There are also lots of scenarios where we try and protect, at incredible costs to human welfare, protected species like the spotted owl, or gopherus agassizii, the California/Nevada tortoise that's endangered by Solar Panels in the Nevada Desert. While all of us (for any reasonable definition of all of us) are happy to see small pox, guinea worm, malaria, ebola, and now zika, wiped out in the name of advancing humanity, it's pretty clear there is a greater divide when it comes to lions, owls, and tortoises. And, before you say, "Well, the owl/tortoise only have financial impact" remember that $$$ can be easily translated into lives simply by dialing up safety standards/inspections/health care/etc... With incredible returns in the third world, and, even some low hanging fruit in the first world as well.
ohashi 11y ago
That's fantastic. Hopefully he's successful. What disease is next?
- Symmetry 11y ago
  We're getting Malaria under control but it's far from being eliminated. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v526/n7572/full/nature15535.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v526/n7572/full/nature1...
- vermontdevil 11y ago
  Malaria/Denegue
- dflock 11y ago
  Hopefully, poliomyelitis.
exar0815 11y ago
The sad thing is, that we could be a lot further in eradication of many diseases. We are on a good way with polio and measles, but the uneducated and plain stupid people that refuse to vaccinate are a grave danger to that endeavour. Also, the shortsightet and ideologic agenda of many "ecological" organizations for banning DDT was a huge setback in the fight for the eradication of malaria, as is now the zealotry against genetic therapy and stem cell research.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  I do not follow it closely, but there's a pretty good chance that the ban on agricultural use of DDT extended its usefulness in combating malaria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Mosquito_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Mosquito_resistance The targeted use in residences never stopped.
- iofj 11y ago
  Just to give some perspective. These are some examples of what vaccination is up against : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ The situation is improving slowly, but only in a few ways. It used to be the case that both the mainstream of islam and extremists were against vaccination (and even now the mainstream is wary of it : apparently it proves allah doesn't have power, and of course the disease and it's effects is the fault of the vaccine, not a major flaw of allah). But extremists are as much against polio vaccination as ever. Apparently they're going to defeat the world with "muslim wombs" and polio vaccination is apparently really a secret plot to make them infertile. (in a way it is of course : more surviving children will extinguish one of the main reasons for having many children, and if it happens the same as in the west in the 20th century, number of children will drop by a lot) One more thing daesh and muslims are fighting to "save" : http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/data/upimages/polio_victim_afghanistan.jpg http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/data/upimages/polio_victim_a...
  - tokenadult 11y ago
    The first article you link, "Religious Opposition to Polio Vaccination," Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Jun; 15(6): 978. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ is quite helpful. Significantly, it was published two years before Osama Bin Laden's compound was discovered and he died.
dlss 11y ago
"The rare Guinea Worm faces extinction. Yet despite growing public support for environmentalism and preservation of endangered species, few people will speak out on the Guinea Worm's behalf. In fact, the United Nations and several prominent U.S. agencies are leading a quiet campaign to eradicate this dwindling species forever from the planet. Is the Guinea Worm the world's most endangered species?" http://www.deadlysins.com/guinea-worm/ http://www.deadlysins.com/guinea-worm/
- Zhenya 11y ago
  I actually can't tell if this is serious or should be on The Onion.
ommunist 11y ago
Biologically speaking, you should keep this species. Because its unique biochemistry possesses the secret of penetration and adoption to human immune system. If the species is lost, this will be lost too and we shall hardly ever achieve tech of curing human body with internal self-delivering mech agents, like the famous "Kremlin Pill", just going through the body, not the intestines.
stereo 11y ago
The educational tshirt (http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/10c._educational_materials_df.jpg http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/ins...) is quite wonderful. Selling them in the West would help raise funds - I would want one!

74 points by dineshp2 11y ago

As written, the title is wrong, though the article does contain the correct statement that "Guinea worm disease is on the brink of becoming the second ever human disease to be completely eradicated through human endeavour". Rinderpest, a viral disease of cattle, has also been eradicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eradication_of_infectious_diseases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eradication_of_infectious_dise...

stock_toaster 11y ago
Smallpox, the other eradicated diseases, is apparently[1] still kept in storage by some countries -- while populations have ceased inoculation due to eradication in the wild. Frightening. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_contr...
cstross 11y ago
ISTR that when the last wild California Condors were taken in for captive breeding (the species was down to single-digit numbers) the conservationists, naturally intending to give their new charges the best care available, gave them an insecticide bath ... ... Not realizing that mites and lice are extremely fussy about their host species and frequently can't live on another organism. As a result of which, the conservation process inadvertently rendered two species extinct. (Moral of story: we tend to pay attention to charismatic megafauna and to horrible zoonoses that kill us, but in doing so our actions can have unforeseen side-effects. I don't think anyone's going to mourn the passing of the guinea worm but it has a life cycle that includes stages in non-human host species, and I don't think we're paying nearly enough attention to the implications. Oh, and the same goes for malaria, zika, and so on.)
- taion 11y ago
  That's really fascinating – I looked up the reference, and your recollection is on point. C. californici was in fact driven extinct, possibly due to fumigation of the last few condors. Better to call this the nth intentional pest elimination, then.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  It'd be really interesting to see how long before that niche is re-filled.
- devishard 11y ago
  I do think that there is good reason to make these decisions intentionally i.e. don't drive species extinct by accident. But I'm not sure that an intentional thought process should lead to different conclusions. It depends on what the goals of conservation are. Humans have, by our presence, drastically altered a variety of ecosystems in ways that can't be undone. In the case of the Condor parasites, it's unclear, but it's possible that if the mites and lice had been left alive that would have been the difference that drove the condors extinct. A non-intervention approach might have extincted all three species. A more extreme example: in the Galapagos, human-introduced flies have been killing the finches that inspired Darwin. A non-intervention approach is arguably the most natural, but this would likely cause the finches to go extinct. Intervening to kill the flies might save the finches, but it also involves ecosystem changes to kill the flies and interaction with the finches that demonstrably has already modified their behaviors. Ultimately, returning the finches to their original state is not an option, so any course conservation takes will result in an ecosystem that differs from what Darwin observed. Given we can't undo the changes we've already made, it makes sense to make these kinds of choices based on human factors. It makes sense to choose majestic condors over lice and mites, historically valuable finches survival over their unmodified behavior, human health over guinea worms, and human health over malaria and the mosquito populations that carry it. Extinction of mosquitoes in particular has far-reaching ecological effects which we should strive to understand and mitigate, but I doubt that any of those effects will be more compelling to me than the suffering caused by malaria. A pragmatic view of conservation realizes that change is inevitable, and the best we can do is push that change in positive directions, and further, that "positive" is subjective.

ghshephard 11y ago

I often wonder if there is any argument to be made that completely eradicating the Guinea Worm, Anopheles mosquitoes, Variola major and Variola minor (SmallPox Virus) is not a 100% good objective. My perspective (as well, I'm guessing, approximately 100% of humanity's, to quite a few significant digits), is that any significantly lower being that hurts humanity, or presents a threat, has no right to exist, and therefore we'll terminate its entire existence. But, you can see, taken to its logical conclusion, that thought pattern could lead to less than desirable ethical behaviors. Perhaps we draw the ethical line at the vertebrates. And maybe Octopuses.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
madaxe_again 11y ago
It may not be 100% good, as there is the broader question of unintended consequences, but unlike us carelessly eradicating species, this is 99.99% "good". It's something that humanity seems to have little issue with - we have been extinguishing species for as long as we've been about, including other sapient species, so in the grand scheme of things a worm is a trifling thing. You are however right about the logical conclusion - we will swarm, consume and eradicate until nothing remains, going by our past and ongoing actions.
rimantas 11y ago
I draw the line at "my species come first". So if someone cares more about other species than about humans that's unethical to me.
- ghshephard 11y ago
  I read some interesting articles about Cecil/Lions in South Africa. While, in the west, there is a lot of support for Lions as "Majestic Creatures" - there are a lot of people, particularly those who live in the same habitat as the Lions, that are not such big fans, and are more than happy to see them wiped out to the point where they only exist on Wildlife Reserves/zoos. There are also lots of scenarios where we try and protect, at incredible costs to human welfare, protected species like the spotted owl, or gopherus agassizii, the California/Nevada tortoise that's endangered by Solar Panels in the Nevada Desert. While all of us (for any reasonable definition of all of us) are happy to see small pox, guinea worm, malaria, ebola, and now zika, wiped out in the name of advancing humanity, it's pretty clear there is a greater divide when it comes to lions, owls, and tortoises. And, before you say, "Well, the owl/tortoise only have financial impact" remember that $$$ can be easily translated into lives simply by dialing up safety standards/inspections/health care/etc... With incredible returns in the third world, and, even some low hanging fruit in the first world as well.

ohashi 11y ago

That's fantastic. Hopefully he's successful. What disease is next?

Symmetry 11y ago
We're getting Malaria under control but it's far from being eliminated. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v526/n7572/full/nature15535.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v526/n7572/full/nature1...
vermontdevil 11y ago
Malaria/Denegue
dflock 11y ago
Hopefully, poliomyelitis.

exar0815 11y ago

The sad thing is, that we could be a lot further in eradication of many diseases. We are on a good way with polio and measles, but the uneducated and plain stupid people that refuse to vaccinate are a grave danger to that endeavour. Also, the shortsightet and ideologic agenda of many "ecological" organizations for banning DDT was a huge setback in the fight for the eradication of malaria, as is now the zealotry against genetic therapy and stem cell research.

maxerickson 11y ago
I do not follow it closely, but there's a pretty good chance that the ban on agricultural use of DDT extended its usefulness in combating malaria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Mosquito_resistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Mosquito_resistance The targeted use in residences never stopped.
iofj 11y ago
Just to give some perspective. These are some examples of what vaccination is up against : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ The situation is improving slowly, but only in a few ways. It used to be the case that both the mainstream of islam and extremists were against vaccination (and even now the mainstream is wary of it : apparently it proves allah doesn't have power, and of course the disease and it's effects is the fault of the vaccine, not a major flaw of allah). But extremists are as much against polio vaccination as ever. Apparently they're going to defeat the world with "muslim wombs" and polio vaccination is apparently really a secret plot to make them infertile. (in a way it is of course : more surviving children will extinguish one of the main reasons for having many children, and if it happens the same as in the west in the 20th century, number of children will drop by a lot) One more thing daesh and muslims are fighting to "save" : http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/data/upimages/polio_victim_afghanistan.jpg http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/data/upimages/polio_victim_a...
- tokenadult 11y ago
  The first article you link, "Religious Opposition to Polio Vaccination," Emerg Infect Dis. 2009 Jun; 15(6): 978. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727330/ is quite helpful. Significantly, it was published two years before Osama Bin Laden's compound was discovered and he died.

dlss 11y ago

"The rare Guinea Worm faces extinction. Yet despite growing public support for environmentalism and preservation of endangered species, few people will speak out on the Guinea Worm's behalf. In fact, the United Nations and several prominent U.S. agencies are leading a quiet campaign to eradicate this dwindling species forever from the planet. Is the Guinea Worm the world's most endangered species?" http://www.deadlysins.com/guinea-worm/ http://www.deadlysins.com/guinea-worm/

Zhenya 11y ago
I actually can't tell if this is serious or should be on The Onion.

ommunist 11y ago

Biologically speaking, you should keep this species. Because its unique biochemistry possesses the secret of penetration and adoption to human immune system. If the species is lost, this will be lost too and we shall hardly ever achieve tech of curing human body with internal self-delivering mech agents, like the famous "Kremlin Pill", just going through the body, not the intestines.

stereo 11y ago

The educational tshirt (http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/10c._educational_materials_df.jpg http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/ins...) is quite wonderful. Selling them in the West would help raise funds - I would want one!