The Age of Vaccines

In the early '60s, there were approximately 450,000 measles cases and an average of 450 measles-associated deaths reported each year in the United States [1] . The disease had been a killer for centuries, and at its peak an estimated 3-4 million persons in the United States were infected each year, of whom 400-500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and another 1,000 developed chronic disability from measles encephalitis. [2] Despite its ubiquity, measles was nothing to sneeze at.

Fortunately, in the face of this danger, American ingenuity once again rose to the occasion, and in 1957 a functional vaccine was produced. [3] Over the following years, a widespread regimen of vaccination was introduced across the country, and the results were nothing short of astounding. By the year 2000, measles had gone from millions of cases annually to being officially declared eliminated in the United States by the CDC. [4]

This is not an isolated result:

- Polio - from 21,000 annual US cases in 1952 to zero today. [5]

- Pertussis (Whooping Coung) - killed between