Emerging Infectious Diseases
Volume 18, Number 7—July 2012
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/index.htm

Book Review
– Nancy Leys Stepan
Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA, 2011
ISBN-10: 0801450586
ISBN-13: 978-0801450587
Pages: 272; Price: US $35.00

Public health, like any dynamic field filled with social reformers, scientists, and passionate believers, generates conflicting views, approaches, and goals. Thus, on domestic and global fronts, public health advocates compete for priority and resources for vertical (single-disease) versus horizontal (infrastructure or systems) programs; infectious diseases versus noncommunicable diseases; targeting diseases to improve health versus emphasizing the role of economic development or social determinants; and primary health care versus eradicating diseases.

Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever? by Nancy Leys Stepan provides a rich context for the role of eradication historically and conceptually in public health and, along the way, touches on many of the fault lines that stress and enrich public health. The depth and breadth of the author’s approach also enrich her book and broaden its appeal to readers whose interests go beyond the topic of disease eradication and include public health history, governance, leadership, philosophy, and dependence on multiple disciplines.