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Vital Signs

Facts & Figures: Vaccine Victories

Given this year's flu-shot shortage, here are a few numbers showing that those needle-sticks really do work:

1796
Year the first vaccine ever, for smallpox, was developed

48,164
Number of people worldwide who died of smallpox in 1904

0
Number of people worldwide who have died of smallpox since 1998

1964
Year the measles vaccine was developed

503,282 *
Number of Americans who died of measles in 1962

89 *
Number of Americans who died of measles in 1998

1945
Year an influenza vaccine was developed

675,000
Number of Americans who died in the influenza pandemic of 1918-19

36,000
Number of Americans who died of influenza in 2003-04

2
Number of individuals with a Dartmouth affiliation who have chaired the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (alumnus Samuel Katz, M.D., and faculty member John Modlin, M.D.)

Sources: The Scientist; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

* In the print edition of the magazine, these figures were erroneously identified as worldwide deaths. They are correct as described here.


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