The success on eradication of smallpox in the last twentieth century has opened up a new possibility for the future eradication programs in the twenty-first century. The global polio eradication programme and the dracuncuriasis eradication programme are in progress, and the eradication programme for measles also has been initiated in North and South America and some other areas. Agency for Cooperation in International Health (ACIH) is supporting these eradication programmes, and also participating the collaborative study on eradicable diseases and the conditions for successful eradication.

The eradication programme, when it succeeds, can disestablish all the measures. This advantage is not only from viewpoint of cost-effectiveness but also from that it completely alters the traditional concept of our fighting against diseases. However, those global programmes need worldwide participation because of expansion in population movement, international travel and commerce. Also, the initiation of global eradication must be well prepared and conducted with careful, technical, and political analysis and decision.

In 1988, WHO resolved to commence the global polio eradication programme. The main strategies consist of National Immunization Days (NIDs) and acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. Enormous progress has been made, and the number of polio cases has fallen by 95% since the initiative was launched in 1988 (Figure). Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) recorded the last endemic case of polio in 1991, WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) in 1997 and European Regional Office (EURO) in 1998. As of the end of 2007, there are 4 countries, which are still considered to have poliovirus circulating. They are in the Indian Sub-Continent and Sub-Saharan Asia. The global cooperation is essential toward the certification of world polio-free.

Following the success in the eradication of polio, a programme for the eradication of measles has been started in North and South America, and other countries. The control measures in North and South America has completed, but there were over 30,000 imported cases from surrounding countries. Eradication of malaria started in 1953 by WHO, but after 20 years, the programme ended up without success.

The biological conditions which lead to successful eradication are:

1. No animal reservoir
2. No long latent infection
3. Availability of effective measures for interruption of spread of infectious diseases

The sociological conditions are:

1. International cooperation for allowing mobilization of world resource
2. Rarely intercontinental transmission of diseases
3. Carried out under the effective leadership

The consideration of above 6 points for eradicable (or eliminable) diseases is shown in the table below:

* for reference

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