History of Vaccine Preventable Diseases in the USA, 1912 to 2017

This animation shows the reported number of cases in the US of 19 diseases where the US currently has a licensed vaccine available. The existence of vaccines has helped to eliminate or greatly reduce the occurrence of many of these diseases.

Data is taken from the US CDC's notifiable infectious disease system. By law, doctors must inform the government whenever they treat a disease on the notifiable disease list, and those reports get aggregated each year and reported in various collections. However, many diseases are underreported because no report is made if a patient recovers on their own without seeing a doctor. For example, it is believed that the pre-vaccine incidence of measles was even higher than shown in this animation.

Only diseases on the CDC's notifiable disease list are shown. Other diseases, such influenza, rotavirus, and HPV are also targeted by vaccines in the US, but they are not considered notifiable diseases, so comparable statistics are not available.

Information on the availability of vaccines in the US is taken from a variety of sources. Some vaccines are recommended for wide distribution immediately after being licensed, while others are licensed for many years before being added to the general recommendation list. In addition, some vaccines are only ever recommended for a narrow subset of the population that is considered to be at high risk.

Vaccines have saved lives.