Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990 TAG: 9004190651
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE:
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Short
The appraisal, by the International Task Force for Disease Eradication, a group that includes the Carter Presidential Center and the Centers for Disease Control, suggests the next victories won't be easy.
Many of the remaining scourges are harder to diagnose and treat, but the task force says three - river blindness, rabies and syphilis - may eventually be contained.
River blindness, a parasitic disease that afflicts 18 million people in Africa and Latin America, is being treated with a new drug called ivermectin.
Experts say rabies is too widespread among animals to be eliminated, but can be controlled in urban populations with aggressive immunization of pets.
Non-venereal syphilis, a bacterial disease that eats away bone and skin, is difficult to distinguish from other diseases.
Three other diseases are even less likely to be eradicated.
Leprosy, a disfiguring disease that strikes 11 million to 12 million people a year, is hard to diagnose, and treatment is lengthy. The same is true of tuberculosis. Even in this country, TB is on the rise, especially among those infected with the AIDS virus.
Health officials are also having trouble with measles. U.S. health officials had hoped to eliminate the disease by 1982, but there are still about 8,000 cases a year in this country. Worldwide, measles causes more than 2 million deaths, most among children.
- Cox News Service
by CNB