Vaccine-Preventable Diseases at All-Time Low
November 14, 2007
Vaccine-Preventable Diseases at All-Time Low
A report in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicates “striking” declines in illness and death from 13 vaccine-preventable diseases for which national immunization recommendations were issued in the years before 2005. Calling vaccines one of the greatest achievements of biomedical science and public health, the research report notes a 92 percent decline in cases and 99 percent decline in deaths for diphtheria, mumps, pertussis, and tetanus since vaccination for those diseases was recommended and points out that endemic transmission of poliovirus and measles rubella viruses has been eliminated in the United States and smallpox has been eradicated worldwide as the result of vaccination. The report summarizes the historical and current state of diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, invasive HIB, acute hepatitis B, hepatitis A, varicella, S. pneumoniae, and smallpox. The report, “Historical Comparisons of Morbidity and Mortality for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the United States,” is published in the November 14, 2007, issue of the Journal of the Amercian Medical Association; the research was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the corresponding author can be contacted at sroush@cdc.gov.