“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox
Abstract Background Malaria elimination and eventual eradication will require internationally coordinated approaches; sustained engagement from politicians, communities, and funders; efficient organizational structures; innovation and new tools; and well-managed programmes. As governments and the gl...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:48c001ac3fb044688a4442c8c030f40d 2023-05-15T15:11:39+02:00 “Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox Justin M. Cohen 2019-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y https://doaj.org/article/48c001ac3fb044688a4442c8c030f40d EN eng BMC http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/48c001ac3fb044688a4442c8c030f40d Malaria Journal, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-16 (2019) Malaria Eradication Elimination Smallpox History Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y 2022-12-31T01:29:48Z Abstract Background Malaria elimination and eventual eradication will require internationally coordinated approaches; sustained engagement from politicians, communities, and funders; efficient organizational structures; innovation and new tools; and well-managed programmes. As governments and the global malaria community seek to achieve these goals, their efforts should be informed by the substantial past experiences of other disease elimination and eradication programmes, including that of the only successful eradication programme of a human pathogen to date: smallpox. Methods A review of smallpox literature was conducted to evaluate how the smallpox programme addressed seven challenges that will likely confront malaria eradication efforts, including fostering international support for the eradication undertaking, coordinating programmes and facilitating research across the world’s endemic countries, securing sufficient funding, building domestic support for malaria programmes nationally, ensuring strong community support, identifying the most effective programmatic strategies, and managing national elimination programmes efficiently. Results Review of 118 publications describing how smallpox programmes overcame these challenges suggests eradication may succeed as a collection of individual country programmes each deriving local solutions to local problems, yet with an important role for the World Health Organization and other international entities to facilitate and coordinate these efforts and encourage new innovations. Publications describing the smallpox experience suggest the importance of avoiding burdensome bureaucracy while employing flexible, problem-solving staff with both technical and operational backgrounds to overcome numerous unforeseen challenges. Smallpox’s hybrid strategy of leveraging basic health services while maintaining certain separate functions to ensure visibility, clear targets, and strong management, aligns with current malaria approaches. Smallpox eradication succeeded by employing ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Malaria Journal 18 1 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
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Malaria Eradication Elimination Smallpox History Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
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Malaria Eradication Elimination Smallpox History Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Justin M. Cohen “Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
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Malaria Eradication Elimination Smallpox History Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
description |
Abstract Background Malaria elimination and eventual eradication will require internationally coordinated approaches; sustained engagement from politicians, communities, and funders; efficient organizational structures; innovation and new tools; and well-managed programmes. As governments and the global malaria community seek to achieve these goals, their efforts should be informed by the substantial past experiences of other disease elimination and eradication programmes, including that of the only successful eradication programme of a human pathogen to date: smallpox. Methods A review of smallpox literature was conducted to evaluate how the smallpox programme addressed seven challenges that will likely confront malaria eradication efforts, including fostering international support for the eradication undertaking, coordinating programmes and facilitating research across the world’s endemic countries, securing sufficient funding, building domestic support for malaria programmes nationally, ensuring strong community support, identifying the most effective programmatic strategies, and managing national elimination programmes efficiently. Results Review of 118 publications describing how smallpox programmes overcame these challenges suggests eradication may succeed as a collection of individual country programmes each deriving local solutions to local problems, yet with an important role for the World Health Organization and other international entities to facilitate and coordinate these efforts and encourage new innovations. Publications describing the smallpox experience suggest the importance of avoiding burdensome bureaucracy while employing flexible, problem-solving staff with both technical and operational backgrounds to overcome numerous unforeseen challenges. Smallpox’s hybrid strategy of leveraging basic health services while maintaining certain separate functions to ensure visibility, clear targets, and strong management, aligns with current malaria approaches. Smallpox eradication succeeded by employing ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Justin M. Cohen |
author_facet |
Justin M. Cohen |
author_sort |
Justin M. Cohen |
title |
“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
title_short |
“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
title_full |
“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
title_fullStr |
“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
title_full_unstemmed |
“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
title_sort |
“remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y https://doaj.org/article/48c001ac3fb044688a4442c8c030f40d |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Malaria Journal, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-16 (2019) |
op_relation |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/48c001ac3fb044688a4442c8c030f40d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-019-2956-y |
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Malaria Journal |
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18 |
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1 |
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1766342473794191360 |