What the words mean
Beaten, gone, or only held back?
News stories and ads use “cured” loosely. Public health uses five steps, defined in a CDC MMWR supplement (Dowdle, 1999). These are their words.
- 1
“Control: The reduction of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity or mortality to a locally acceptable level as a result of deliberate efforts; continued intervention measures are required to maintain the reduction.”
- 2
“Elimination of disease: Reduction to zero of the incidence of a specified disease in a defined geographical area as a result of deliberate efforts; continued intervention measures are required.”
- 3
“Elimination of infections: Reduction to zero of the incidence of infection caused by a specific agent in a defined geographical area as a result of deliberate efforts; continued measures to prevent re-establishment of transmission are required.”
- 4
“Eradication: Permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection caused by a specific agent as a result of deliberate efforts; intervention measures are no longer needed.”
- 5
“Extinction: The specific infectious agent no longer exists in nature or in the laboratory.”
Same word, different reach
On the CDC’s malaria history page, the United States’ achievement is called eradication:
“WHO certified the eradication of malaria from the U.S. in 1970.”
Malaria still circulates elsewhere in the world, so by the definitions above, what happened in one country is closer to elimination: zero in a defined area, with efforts still needed to keep it out. On this site’s labels, a single country or region being rid of a disease is marked Elimination; only smallpox and rinderpest are marked Eradication.
Cure and remission
For one person, “cure” and “remission” are different words too. The National Cancer Institute’s dictionary:
“To heal or restore health; a treatment to restore health.”
“A decrease in or disappearance of signs and symptoms of cancer. In partial remission, some, but not all, signs and symptoms of cancer have disappeared. In complete remission, all signs and symptoms of cancer have disappeared, although cancer still may be in the body.”
Whether any of this applies to you, or to someone you care for, is a question for a doctor, nurse or pharmacist. This site teaches history.