Happy Death Day, Dear Rinderpest

Rinderpest was a cattle-killing disease that ravaged Ethiopia's food supply for decades. But the operative word is "was." Today, rinderpest is a thing of the past — and people are celebrating.

Joining in the festivities will be a team from Tufts University, whose contributions were critically important to the demise of rinderpest. They'll almost certainly be toasted for their work, which involved not only developing a usable vaccine but also distributing the vaccine to nomadic rural cattle farmers. Even more importantly, the team trained local animal health care workers in proper vaccination technique, and prepared them to spot and manage rinderpest flare-ups after vaccinations.

The success of the rinderpest project was critically important to Ethiopia, where, according to a Newswise article. "Rinderpest surfaced in Africa in colonial times, initially killing up to 90 percent of the cattle population in Ethiopia, where an estimated one-third of the human population starved to death. In the years that followed, periodic epidemics severely damaged the food supply and the economy."

The same techniques as those applied in Ethiopia are now being implemented in other African countries including Uganda, Sudan, and Kenya. While rinderpest's "happy death day" may be local for now, celebration may be worldwide in years to come.