With the exception of the great success story surrounding the eradication of Smallpox following a ten year global initiative in 1980 no other pathogen has been eradicated globally since
Smallpox was able to be eradicated because a ‘live attenuated’ vaccine was used against the only strain of the virus. There was also a programme of surveillance, contact tracing and ‘ring’ vaccinations
There are many safe and effective vaccines that do exist against many pathogens and these have managed to push a number of childhood diseases to the verge of extinction
Vaccines against such diseases as mumps, chicken pox and whooping cough are administered to children as part of an immunisation schedule and they successfully confer immunity
As a result many childhood diseases are kept at low levels within populations due to herd immunity
Herd immunity arises when a sufficiently large proportion of the population has been vaccinated (and are therefore immune) which makes it difficult for a pathogen to spread within that population, as those not immunised are protected and unlikely to contract it as the levels of the disease are so low
Although most vaccinations are given to children there are some vaccines that are provided at later stages in life, for example vaccinations for tuberculosis (TB) and Hepatitis B are offered to frontline medical workers who have a higher risk of coming into contact with such diseases in the hospital setting;Travellers may be advised to take particular vaccines if travelling to areas where certain diseases are endemic such as Yellow Fever in parts of Africa