History of infectious disease outbreaks and vaccines timeline

Learn about the history of major disease outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics, as well as the impact vaccines and research had on many infectious diseases.

Many people in New York City being vaccinated from smallpox in 1872
1796Smallpox
Dr. Louis Pasteur in his lab holding a bottle
1885Rabies
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The bacteria that causes whooping cough
1914Whooping cough
Army men standing and wearing masks at a hospital during the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919
1945Flu (influenza)
Dr. Thomas Magath sits at a desk looking at the first shipment of the polio vaccine at Mayo Clinic in 1955
1955Polio
Measles virus.
1963Measles
Mumps virus
1967Mumps
Rubella virus
1969Rubella
Mosquito biting a person's skin
1952-2016Zika virus
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)
2002-2021SARS and MERS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19
2020COVID-19
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