<P> Following the ongoing eradication effort, only 7 cases of BSE were reported worldwide in 2013: 3 in the United Kingdom; 2 in France; 1 in Ireland; and 1 in Poland . This is the lowest number of cases since at least 1988 . In 2015 there were at least 6 reported cases (3 were of the atypical H - type). </P> <P> In 2015, Cuba became the first country in the world to eliminate mother - to - child syphilis . In 2017 World Health Organization certified that Antigua And Barbuda, Saint Kitts And Nevis and four British Overseas Territories Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Montserrat have been certified that they have ended transmission of mother - to - child syphilis and HIV . </P> <P> Because the rabies virus is almost always caught from animals, rabies eradication has focused on reducing the population of wild and stray animals, controls and compulsory quarantine on animals entering the country, and vaccination of pets and wild animals . Many island nations, including Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, and the United Kingdom, managed to eliminate rabies during the twentieth century, and more recently much of continental Europe has been declared rabies - free . </P> <P> As far as animal diseases are concerned, now that rinderpest has been stamped out, many experts believe peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is the next disease amenable to global eradication . Also known as goat plague or ovine rinderpest, PPR is a highly contagious viral disease of goats and sheep characterized by fever, painful sores in the mouth, tongue and feet, diarrhea, pneumonia and death, especially in young animals . It is caused by a virus of the genus Morbillivirus that is related to rinderpest, measles and canine distemper . </P>

Public health efforts have eradicated communicable diseases like cholera and diphtheria worldwide