Detailing rubella's disappearance

Quick View. April 11, 2005.

1962-1965	12.5 million cases in the United States; a worldwide rubella epidemic is taking place.
1969	57,686 U.S. cases; vaccine is licensed with one dose recommended for children.
1976	12,491 U.S. cases
1980	3,904 cases
1989	396 cases; CDC designs plan to eliminate indigenous rubella transmission.
1990	1,125 cases; rubella re-emerges, and recommendations are changed to two vaccine doses.
1991	1,401 cases
1992	160 cases
1995	128 cases; epidemiology of disease changes, and most cases are imported rather than locally acquired.
2001	23 cases
2002	18 cases
2003	7 cases
2004	9 cases; CDC panel concludes that transmission of rubella has been interrupted.

After a 40-year effort, rubella is no longer endemic in this country.

Late last month, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the transmission of the rubella virus rubella has been interrupted in the United States. This accomplishment is a result of intensive efforts to increase vaccination levels and eliminate the disease both here and throughout the Americas.

Here is how the disease's vanishing act took place.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; amednews staff research

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