Americans are cool if you show just a chink of vulnerability they respond so much. They'll pat you on the arm and say 'Hey kid you're all right.' Brits will respond but they are much more cynical.
The Carter Center has the only existing international taskforce on disease eradication. Which means a total elimination of a disease on the face of the Earth. In the history of the world there's only been one disease eradicated: smallpox. The second disease I think is gonna be guinea worm.