The scream
Three hundred thousand children born with sickle cell every year. Most in sub-Saharan Africa. First pain crisis before second birthday. Bones on fire, organs swelling. Pediatric nurses identify it across a ward by the pitch of the scream....
One disease in forty-six years
Smallpox killed roughly 300 million people in the twentieth century. In 1980, the WHO declared it eradicated. It remains the only human disease ever fully eliminated. Forty-six years later, the list hasn’t grown.
Polio was supposed to be next....