Think about what it means for an animal to go extinct. Say, elephants. If elephants went extinct today, your children or grandchildren will grow up in a world without elephants. They will never see one, ever, no matter where they go or what they do. A significant experience will be denied them; a choice will be denied them. So even if you don't care about elephants in themselves, won't you please think of the children?
Disease eradication is the opposite. By eradicating a disease, mankind makes a mark on the planet for the rest of time. Most things people do will eventually crumble. But as bad as the extinction of an animal is, extinction of a disease is the antithesis. It is a permanent, unalterable improvement in the state of the world. Disease eradication is one of the greatest achievements of man. And it only happens because of vaccines. If anyone ever tells you vaccines aren't safe, point out the alternative.
Only two diseases have ever been eradicated, and of the two, only smallpox affects humans. But we're making progress on several others, and polio is at the top of that list. Forty years ago there were 50,000 reported cases of polio in the world. The last few years, there have been under 500. There are only three countries with endemic polio (meaning it's transmitted within the country, not imported), and the number of endemic cases is down to under 150. Now, the game isn't over; as long as there are endemic populations and large groups of unvaccinated people, there can still be outbreaks, like happened this year in Somalia. But the vaccination will continue. Within the next decade, polio will be dead.
And then nobody, anywhere, will have polio again. Ever. This will never happen again:
Think about that.
In the same period of time, you can expect to see an end to guinea worm, and yaws may not be far behind. Then malaria and the measles.
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