Comments

Couple of things. 1st, Polio is primarily spread person to person via the fecal-oral route. The choice was not malaria over polio. Two different diseases, two different routes. Second, I would quibble with the choice of the 5 most problematic diseases. Malaria; TB, especially drug resistant TB; HIV; Pandemic influenza; and Heart Disease. The last isn't person to person transmissible, but it is the leading cause of death in both the developed and under-developed countries. Malaria and TB are exploding and the incidence of multi-drig resistant TB is especially troubling. HIV has virtually eliminated a whole generation in some countries, and pandemic influenza WILL happen again, the only questions are when, where it will start, how virulent it will be, and what virus will be the cause.

Jertle1's comment RE: Malaria and HIV is right on the mark. Along with TB, Malaria routinely ranks in the top 5 of health threats worldwide. It kills a child every 30 seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You missed the ball on this one. rszczypka's comments show a what happens when people take everything they read at face value. As dontbother points out, although the anti-immunization crazies get a lot of publicity, their claims have been thoroughly discredited. Polio is a good example. When immunizations were stopped in certain countries in Africa, due to pressure from particular leaders, areas that had been polio free for several years soon had cases (and newly crippled children) again. In Europe, parents convinced by Wakefield's specious arguments left their kids unvaccinated, resulting in the largest resurgence of measles in decades.