List of diseases eliminated from the United States

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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

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
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 US children discontinued in 1973; declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. [2]
Babesia bovis babesiosis 1943 Cattle disease; occasionally infects humans. [citation needed]
Malaria 1951 2016 See National Malaria Eradication Program
Poliomyelitis 1979 1993 After widespread vaccination efforts; see Poliomyelitis eradication. [3]
Measles 2000 2022 Regarded by CDC as eradicated in 2000, however see the Measles resurgence in the United States [4]
Rubella 2004 After widespread national vaccination efforts. [5]
Diphtheria 2012 After widespread national vaccination efforts. [6]

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.[7]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
  • 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.[8]
  • 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.[9] 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. ↑ "Polio Elimination in the United States". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 3 August 2022. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  4. ↑ "Measles cases". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 29 December 2022. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  5. ↑ CDC, “Rubella in the U.S.” Archived 2018-12-07 at the Wayback Machine, Rubella in the U.S., March 31, 2016
  6. ↑ CDC, “Notifiable Diseases and Mortality Tables” Archived 2022-07-10 at the Wayback Machine, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), March 21, 2014 / 63(11);ND-142-ND-155.
  7. ↑ Bleakley, Hoyt, “Disease and Development: Evidence from Hookworm Eradication in the American South” Archived 2020-12-23 at the Wayback Machine, Q J Econ. 2007; 122(1): 73–117.
  8. ↑ "CDC TB Division Mission Statement and Activities". www.cdc.gov. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  9. ↑ "2010 National STD Prevention Conference". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2010. Archived from the original on April 9, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
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