ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the twentieth-century optimism medical optimism, which was largely based on institutional infrastructure and scientific progress that would advance many of the medical developments that were critical in minimizing the risks of infectious disease epidemics. It examines of the challenges of polio, smallpox, and malaria, three infectious diseases that were targeted for eradication during the latter half of the twentieth century. Ronald Ross hypothesis, served as the foundation for a vector-based approach to eradicating malaria. National Malarial Eradication Program focused on encouraging the implementation of home fumigation strategies with DDT as a means of addressing the threat of malaria in the United States. The author Rachel Carson argues that DDT was having a negative impact on the lives of people who were absorbing it due to its overuse. Through the 1970s and 1980s, limited financial support and increasing challenges in addressing malaria resistant mosquitoes and increasingly chloroquine led to reduced support for malarial eradication and control efforts.
