Question

Which one of the following diseases CANNOT be eradicated?

• A. Leprosy
• B. Tuberculosis
• C. Measles
• D. Pertussis

Hint:

Think about which disease can hide silently in the body for years before causing illness.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Eradicating a disease means wiping it out everywhere for good, and only diseases that meet a strict checklist can realistically be targeted this way.

1. Leprosy: Spreads only between humans and responds to multi-drug therapy, so the WHO has set elimination as a public health problem as an achievable goal.
2. Tuberculosis: Millions of people carry silent, latent infection for years with no symptoms and no reliable way to detect or clear every case, and the available vaccine, BCG, does not reliably stop the lung disease that spreads it. This hidden reservoir makes eradication out of reach with current tools.
3. Measles: A cheap, highly effective vaccine and a strictly human-to-human spread make it a genuine eradication candidate, much like smallpox before it.
4. Pertussis: Also spreads only among humans and has a working vaccine, keeping it within the group of diseases considered eradicable in principle.

Only tuberculosis carries a large, silent, undetectable reservoir of infection that current diagnostics and vaccines cannot clear, which rules out eradication.

Let's summarize:

• Leprosy, measles, and pertussis all have workable tools and no long hidden reservoir, so eradication stays a realistic goal.
• Tuberculosis hides silently for years and lacks a fully protective vaccine, so it cannot currently be eradicated.

So the correct answer is tuberculosis.