• Worldwide, over 1 million infants and young children die every year from pneumococcal disease and rotavirus diarrhea. A large number of these deaths are vaccine preventable.
  • Worldwide, deaths from measles has been reduced from an estimated 733 000 deaths in 2000 to 164 000 deaths in 2008, thanks to intensified vaccination campaigns.
  • Before polio vaccine was available, 13,000 to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported each year in the United States. These annual epidemics of polio often left thousands of victims–mostly children–in braces, crutches, wheelchairs, and iron lungs. The effects were life-long. In 2002, there were no cases of polio in the United States.
  • Only four countries continue to struggle with Polio – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan – down from more than 125 countries in 1988.
  • Before 1985, Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib) caused serious infections in 20,000 children each year, including meningitis (12,000 cases) and pneumonia (7,500 cases). From 1994-1998, fewer than 10 fatal cases of invasive Hib disease were reported each year. In 2002, there were but 34 cases of Hib disease reported.
  • In the 1964-1965 epidemic, there were 12.5 million cases of rubella (German measles). Of the 20,000 infants born with congenital rubella syndrome, 11,600 were deaf, 3,580 were blind, and 1,800 were mentally retarded as a result of the infection. In the US there were 9 cases of rubella in 2004 and only four cases of congenital rubella between 2001 and 2004.
  • In the early 1940s, there was an average of 175,000 cases of pertussis (whooping cough) per year, resulting in the deaths of 8,000 children annually. In 2002, 9,771 cases were reported.
  • In the 1920s (United States), there were 100,000 to 200,000 cases of diphtheria each year and 13,000 people died from the disease. In 2002, there was only one case of diphtheria in the United States.
  • Before measles immunization was available, nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles. An average of 450 measles-associated deaths were reported each year between 1953 and 1963.
  • Approximately 20 percent of reported tetanus cases end in death.
  • From 1922-1926, there were an estimated 1,314 cases of tetanus per year in the U.S.  In 2000, only 41 cases of tetanus were reported in the U.S.
  • According to the World Health Organization, Immunization prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths every year