List of diseases eliminated from the United States

This is a list of diseases known (or declared) to have been eliminated from the United States, either permanently or at one time. ("Elimination" is the preferred term for "regional eradication" of a disease; the term "eradication" is reserved for the reduction of an infectious disease's global prevalence to zero.) Eliminated diseases can often be re-imported without additional endemic cases. Although no fixed rule always applies, many infectious diseases (e.g., measles) are considered eliminated when no cases have been reported to public health authorities for at least 12 months.

The eliminated diseases

Fig. 1: Diseases eliminated from the United States of America

Disease	Date last endemic case	Date last imported case	Notes	References
Yellow fever	1905	1996	Last epidemic 1905, New Orleans; last imported case 1996 (prior to that 1924)	[1]
Smallpox	1934	1949	After widespread national vaccination efforts; routine vaccination of American children discontinued in 1973; declared eradicated worldwide in 1980	[2]
Malaria	1951	2024	See National Malaria Eradication Program	[3]
Poliomyelitis	1979	2022	After widespread vaccination efforts; see Poliomyelitis eradication	[4] [5]
Measles	2025	2022	Regarded by CDC as eradicated in 2000; however, see Measles resurgence in the United States	[6]
Rubella	2004		After widespread national vaccination efforts	[7]
Diphtheria		2012	After widespread national vaccination efforts	[8]

Possible future eliminations

Various public health projects are going on, with a goal of eliminating diseases from the country. Several infectious diseases in the United States, not on the above list, are considered close to elimination (98–99% reductions): e.g., Hemophilus influenzae , mumps, rubella and congenital rubella. Other disease pathogens (e.g., those of anthrax, rabies and tetanus) have been almost eliminated from humans in the US, but remain as hazards in the environment, so cannot accurately be described as eliminated. The stated goal of "eradication" of hookworm from the southeast US (1915–1920) was not achieved, although the hookworm-infection rate of that region did drop by more than half. ^[9]

• In 1954, Congressional funds were first approved for a Cooperative State-Federal Brucellosis Eradication Program to eliminate the disease from the country. (Brucellosis is a problem mainly in livestock. In 1956, 124,000 affected herds were found by testing in the US. By 1992, the number had dropped to 700 herds and the number of affected, domestic herds has declined to single digits since then.)
• The CDC Division of Tuberculosis Elimination has a goal of eliminating tuberculosis from the United States by minimizing the likelihood of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission, which will prevent the occurrence of new cases. ^[10]
• The Oral Rabies Vaccine (ORV) Program has a goal of preventing the spread of raccoon-variant rabies and eventually eliminating it from the United States.
• An effort has been made for several years to eliminate syphilis from the US. ^[11] The rate of infection decreased through the 1990s, and in 2000, it was the lowest since reporting began in 1941, leading the US Surgeon General to issue a plan to eliminate the disease from the country. It has been staging a comeback, however, increasing each year since 2001.^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. McFarland, Joy M.; Baddour, Larry M.; Nelson, Jeffery E.; Elkins, Sandra K.; Craven, Robert B.; Cropp, Bruce C.; Chang, Gwong-Jen; Grindstaff, Alan D.; Craig, Allen S. (1997-11-01). "Imported Yellow Fever in a United States Citizen". Clinical Infectious Diseases. 25 (5): 1143–1147. doi:10.1086/516111. ISSN   1058-4838. PMID   9402373.
2. "Smallpox Fact Sheet: Smallpox Disease Overview". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Archived from the original on 2013-04-02.
3. "Early Release - Plasmodium vivax Infections among Immigrants from China Traveling to the United States". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . 7 May 2024.
4. "Polio Elimination in the United States". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . 3 August 2022.
5. "New York State Department of Health and Rockland County Department of Health Alert the Public to A Case of Polio In the County". New York State Department of Health. 21 July 2022.
6. "Measles (Rubeola)". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . 29 December 2022.
7. CDC, Rubella in the U.S., 31 March 2016
8. CDC, "Notifiable Diseases and Mortality Tables", Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 21 March 2014 / 63(11);ND-142-ND-155.
9. Bleakley, Hoyt, “Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South”, Q J Econ. 2007; 122(1): 73–117.
10. "CDC TB Division Mission Statement and Activities". cdc.gov. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
11. "2010 National STD Prevention Conference". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2010. Retrieved 9 May 2010.