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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
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