The polio program's tribulations may already have dampened enthusiasm for the concept of total disease eradication. Measles was supposed to be next, but measles fighters are only "talking about mortality reduction and catch-up" these days, Heymann remarks.

"There's been an undue emphasis on the idea that we're going to eradicate things," Henderson says, despite his own successes against smallpox and polio. Noting tremendous progress in controlling childhood diseases, such as neonatal tetanus and rubella, Henderson thinks that if nothing else, "the polio program has served to show countries what could be done with large-scale immunization, when you mobilize a whole community to act."

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